HC Deb 05 July 1869 vol 197 cc1167-8
MR. SIDEBOTTOM

said, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If his attention has been called to a letter in the City Article of the "Times" of July 1st, relative to the Société Industrielle et Agricole d'Egypte, and whether the following statements are correct:—1. that the Egyptian Government had certified to the Foreign Office their intention of returning eighty per cent to the shareholders of the Company; 2. that this return is limited to the shares held by the Egyptian Trading Company and Messrs. Cavan, Lubbock, and Co.; and, if these statements be correct, what steps Her Majesty's Government propose to adopt in the matter?

MR. OTWAY

, in reply, said, he had seen the letter in The Times referred to by the hon. Member. It was not quite accurate to say that the Egyptian Government had certified to the Foreign Office their intention of returning 80 per cent to the shareholders of the Company. There had, in fact, been no direct communication on the subject between the Foreign Office and the Egyptian Government. Colonel Stanton, Her Majesty's Consul General in Egypt, had been under the impression that it was the intention of the Viceroy to purchase the shares of the Company held by French houses at 80 per cent, but it turned out that it was the intention of the Viceroy only to purchase the shares of this Company held by two French houses at the price named. Colonel Stanton was instructed to use his influence in order that all the English shareholders should be placed upon an equal footing with the French shareholders, and the result was that the Viceroy had determined to purchase the shares held by Messrs. Cavan, Lubbock, and Co. and the Egyptian Trading Company at the same price; and, by so doing, it was alleged that the English shareholders had been put upon the same footing as the French shareholders—the shares held by two houses of each country having been purchased at the same price. In reply to the latter part of the hon. Member's Question he had to state that the Consul General in Egypt had been instructed to apply to the Government of the Viceroy that the English shareholders should be treated upon a footing of perfect equality with the French shareholders.