§ MR. ASHMEAD-BARTLETTasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether his attention has been called to the following statements made by The Times Correspondent at Alexandria, on the 24th November:—
Very serious cases of brigandage continue to occur in the interior. It is certain that 366 many outrages and robberies are concealed, from fear of the reprisals which are promptly taken. That authority which, though sometimes brutally, still effectually, maintained order, has been removed, nothing being substituted for it. The police now possess no authority. The new Courts, even if incorrupt, are too dilatory and cumbersome to meet the want in question, with the result that crime is not only undetected, but that, if detected, it goes unpunished. We require a European police, with an English magistrate;whether these statements are accurate; and, what measures Her Majesty's Ministers propose to take, in order to give beneficial effect to the expenditure of £9,000,000 of British money in Egypt, and to give good administration and justice to that country?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEI have read the statements referred to by the hon. Member; but, as I stated on the 24th ultimo, in reply to a Question by him on the same subject, Her Majesty's Government have received no recent Report regarding brigandage in Egypt. They have no reason to credit the statement that the police possess no authority; but I have already stated that a Special Commission has been appointed to deal with the matter in the localities affected, and I have every reason to believe that it is acting with, efficiency.