HC Deb 09 March 1877 vol 232 cc1651-3
MR. J. R. YORKE

I wish to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer a Question of which I have given him Private Notice. There appears to be some misconception outside the House as to the answer which the right hon. Gentleman gave last night with respect to the 1854 and 1855 Turkish Loans, which was to the effect that there was no provision for the payment of the Egyptian Tribute or any part of it direct to the Bank of Eng- land. I wish to ask, Whether he means that there is no special provision to that effect in the Treaty of 1855; or whether there is no distinct understanding that the Egyptian Tribute should go direct to the Bank of England; and, whether the Treaty of 1855 does not state that the portion of it left after paying the Turkish Loan of 1854 shall be applied to the Loan of 1855?

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER

I am very sorry that there should have been any misunderstanding of my answer yesterday, but I was bound in my answer by the Question put to me. Now, the hon. Member asked me yesterday a Question in which he made or embodied this assertion—that the security for the Loan of 1854 was the assignment of the Egyptian Tribute, which under the Tripartite Treaty came direct from Egypt to the Bank of England. I was obliged to tell him that that was not the case. I was speaking of the Loan of 1854, and of the Treaty of 1855 as bearing upon it. I believe there is an arrangement between the bondholders and the Turkish Government, under which the Tribute is to be sent to the Bank of England; but that was not in the Tripartite Treaty. The article in the Tripartite Treaty—it is the 3rd—is this— That the interest and sinking fund of the loan that is the Guaranted Loan of 1855— shall form a charge on the whole revenues of the Ottoman Empire, and specially on the annual amount of the tribute of Egypt which remains over and above the part thereof appropriated to the first loan, and moreover on the customs of Smyrna and Syria. His Imperial Majesty the Sultan engages that he will cause to be remitted to the Bank of England, on or before the 25th of June and the 25th of December in each year the full amount of one-half year's interest and sinking fund on the whole amount of the said loan to be raised under the conjoint guarantee of Her Britannic Majesty and of His Majesty the Emperor of the French, or on so much thereof as may be raised, until the whole capital borrowed shall be repaid. As I mentioned yesterday, the Governments of England and France have made a joint representation to the Government of the Porte on the subject of the Tribute Loans generally. With regard to the Loan of 1855, that is the provision which is in force.