§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL (Kirkcaldy, &c.)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Why the later Reports of Mr. Justice West, specially deputed by Her Majesty's Government to inquire into the administration of justice in Egypt, have never been laid before Parliament; and, whether certain extracts from those Reports which got into the newspapers at the time, and which condemned in very strong terms the action of the Courts, and the treatment of untried prisoners in the gaols, were genuine, especially those which set forth that, owing to the inefficiency of the new police and new tribunals, brigandage had greatly increased; that in view to its suppression methods more arbitrary than those of the old Cazees had been adopted; that people were thrown into prison without evidence and kept there without trial; and that, in consequence, great abuses prevailed in the gaols?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JAMES FERGUSSON) (Manchester, N.E.)A Report of Mr. Justice West on Judicial Organization in Egypt was published in Egypt No. 5, 1886, page 28. Some reference is made in that Report to abuses such as are mentioned in the Question. Mr. West was not specially deputed by Her Majesty's Government to inquire into the administration of justice in Egypt. He was selected and appointed by the Egyptian Government to be Procureur Général of the Indigenous Courts, and he drew up the Paper in question at the request of Sir Evelyn Baring. Mr. Justice West made a further Report containing a long and technical explanation of a Code of Criminal Procedure which he had prepared for the Native tribunals. This was referred to a Commission for consideration. The Papers will be examined, in order to see if anything can be presented with advantage. I may add that great reforms have been accomplished in the particulars upon which Mr. West animadverted.