Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-22
THE COURTS OF EGYPT
Higher Ones Declared to Be
Admirable.
PRAISED BY NATIVES
LOWER TRIBUNALS UNIVERSAL
LIZ ADMITTED TO BE CORRUPT.
Lord Cromer Claims That an Advance
is Being Made, Although It
May Be but Slow.
PRAISED BY NATIVES
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

w
| Special Correspondence of The Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald.
CAIRO, December %, 1908.
Egypt is full of official anomalies and
| contradictions. 1t is nominally province
| of the Ottoman empire and pays S,325,CG0
| tribute to the sultan annually, yet the title,
! khedive, worn by it's ruler, means an indie
pendent sovereign, a king and he is ire
! ouently described as a king Of kings,
| prince of emperors who by Divine right
/ and grace exercises authority over all man.
/ kind. At the same time the government IS
administered by Great Britain, as L eX-
| planned to you the other day; the finances
| are controlled by an international debt
commission consisting of delegates from
France, Germany, Austria. Italy, Great
| Britain and Russia who sit at the treasury
department, collect the receipts and decide
| what proportion of them shall be expended
| for official purposes and devote the remain
der to a sinking fund for the payment of
| the bonds held by the subjects of their re-
| Spective nations
| The courts of justice in the large cities
| and all of higher jurisdiction. involving
| property or personal rights in which for
| eigner may be Interested are administered
| by thirty-six judges representing fourteen
| different nations. Seven great powers SEND
three one of whom sits in the appellate
| court and six secondary powers send two
| each They sit with native judges in the
| p, oporton of three foreigners to two ma
i tives, while single foreign judges sit alone
| in the police court, in bankruptcy and other
| minor proceedings. This has been the ar
| rangement since 1876, and these mixed
| courts have jurisdiction over everything eX-
| cept marriage, divorce and the settlements
| of estates. which are in the hands Oh the
| local judiciary.
Ever since the year 1850 Egypt has yield
ed to foreign nations the right to try by
| their own courts any of their subjects who
| may be accused of crime in this country
| The first arrangement was made in the year
| named with the republic of Genoa, which
had command of the seas for several CEN
| turtles and sent traders and ships to every
| port. When these traders or seamen got
| into trouble they We're tried before repre-
| sentativeS of their own government, ana
( when they had a dispute with native the
| question was settled jointly by represen-
| tative of their own government and Turk
| or Egypt This was not done by treaty,
| because the Sultan of Turkey, being the
| representative of God on earth, the fountain
| of wisdom the dispenser of justice and the
source of all power, happiness and prospect
} ty, could not make a treaty with an IN
! ferior sovereign, and no sovereign ranked
| as his equal. Hence the agreements were
| called COMPUTATIONS, word which means
| voluntary and gratuitous concessions or
favors and under them all foreigners in
| Turkey enjoy complete immunity from the
| laws governing the natives, and when ar
| rested for crime must be tried before their
| consul according to the laws of their own
| government.
| New System Adopted.
| There was so much confusion, injustice
| and Partially about this arrangement, es-
pecially from the immunity of foreigners
| from arrest and police surveillance, that, in
1876 a new system of jurisprudence was
| adopted, and Great Britain, Germany,
| France, Austria, Russia, Italy, Belgium,
| Spain, Holland, Greece, Portugal Denmark,
| Sweden and Norway and the United States
| entered into the present arrangement, under
| which the mixed tribunals have jurisdiction
| in all matters civil and commercial between
| natives and foreigners, or between foreign
| ers of different nationalities.
| The success of the mixed tribunals is ac
| knowledged by every one. They have the
| confidence of both natives and foreigners,
| of the people and the government, so much
| SO that natives who have important COM
mercial claims usually assign them to some
| foreign trustee or friend in order to be sure
| of honest and impartial consideration.
Criminal jurisdiction is limited to crimes
| committed by foreigners. Native criminals
| are tried by the native courts, and it is a
| high tribute to the character and conduct
| of the foreign population when zone is able
| to say that the high criminal court has
| never sat twice since it was organized in
| 1875. The procedure is that of France, the
| Code Napoleon being modified to suit the
conditions of people of different religions
| and races
| The doctrine of extraordinarily applies
| In other parts of Turkey as in all semi-civ-
iliZed nations and ofrenses and law suits are
| tried before the consuls of the several gov
| ernments, who are often incompetent and
| dishonest; but in Egypt has secured court
| of educated jurists.
The original appointees from the United
| States were Judge Barringer from North
| Carolina and George Bachelor of New
| York. The latter resigned in 1889 and re-
| turned to the United States, where he
| served for several years assistant sec
| al
| appointed to his old post, succeeding
| Walker Fearn of Alabama, who was chief
| of the department of foreign affairs at the
| Colombian exposition. Judge Morgan of
| Louisiana, afterward minister to Mexico
| was one of the early judges. Judge Barrin-
ger was succeeded by A. NJ Kelley of Rich
| mond, who resigned in 1902. Mr.. Farnham
Judge Kinsman of Massachusetts and Ern-