HC Deb 10 August 1883 vol 283 c70
MR. ASHMEAD-BARTLETT

asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If his attention had been called to the serious news published in The Standard of that morning, to the effect that the Canal system in Lower Egypt having been allowed to fall into a ruinous state, it was doubly difficult to combat the inroads of the Nile; and, further, that the utter worth lessness of the whole Governmental machinery in Egypt was fully known?

LORD EDMUND FITZMAURICE

I have already answered this Question. I have reminded the House that the Egyptian Government had at its disposal the skill of a distinguished engineering officer, Colonel Moncrieff, who was specially charged with this matter.