§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign 668 Affairs, If he can yet say whether the Assembly of Notables now convened at Cairo is the General Assembly legally elected as required by the Organic Law, and that the requirements of that Law in regard to the New Loan have been fulfilled; if he can explain how it is that when the Provincial Councils have never been called into existence, and the Organic Electoral Law, Article 39, requires the election of the elected members of the Legislative Council by the Provincial Councils, the Legislative Council can have been legally constituted, or whether, in fact, the elected members have been obtained, and how; and, whether he can give any assurance that any representative of Her Majesty's Government, deputed to Egypt, will urge the fulfilment of the provisions of the Organic Law in regard to self-governing institutions, which have hitherto been neglected, so that the machinery of self-government may be provided and got into working order as soon as possible?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. BOURKE)The Assembly of Notables now convened is the Assemblée Générale; but whether its members have been legally elected or not I cannot undertake to say, that being a matter of Egyptian law. I can only refer the hon. Member to Sir Evelyn Baring's despatch of October 20, in Egypt, No. 18, 1885, p. 12, in which it is stated that the Legislative Council has been convoked, and has done careful work as a consultative body. But as to its constitution, I cannot say whether it has been carried out in strict conformity with Article 39 of the Organic Electoral Law or not. I am sure, Sir, that any Re-presentative of Her Majesty's Government deputed to Egypt will pay attention to the important subject mentioned in the Question. But what his recommendations will be with respect to it, it would be premature for me to predict.
§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLasked whether, as the General Assembly, under the Organic Law, could only be brought together by an election all over the country of the same character as a General Election in this country, that election had yet taken place?
§ MR. BOURKEI have looked very carefully into the Organic Law, and I am unable—I tell the hon. Member frankly—to reconcile the terms of the 669 law with the information we have received at the Foreign Office; but this is a question for the Egyptian Government as much as for Her Majesty's Government. I will be very glad to make a representation that the Organic Law should be carried out.
§ MR. M'COANinquired whether the whole of the Egyptian law did not lie within the four corners of the Organic Law, and, therefore, ought to be intelligible to the Foreign Office?
§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELLasked whether the Government would insist upon their Agents being informed whether the Organic Law had been carried out?
§ MR. BOURKEsaid, he could not at the present moment give any further information than that which was in the hands of Her Majesty's present Government, and also of the late Government.