§ MR. LABOUCHERE (Northampton)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Whether he is aware that the Daira Sanieh of the Khedive (the great land and sugar industry of Egypt) is in the habit of letting its lands by auction, and that, although it binds itself in writing that the last day of the auction shall be "the definite close of the auction," and "that every subsequent offer shall be refused," it is in the constant habit of breaking its undertaking by turning out the fellaheen after they have been declared tenants and let into possession under the auc- 847 tion, and even after they have bought seed and ploughed and cultivated the land, in direct contravention of the Judgment of the Government Court of Inquiry held on the Daira in 1886, which judgment, after calling special attention to this practice, censured the French and English controllers for not having prevented it in the past, and warned them "to exercise stricter supervision for the future;" whether he knows that, as a result of the treatment by the Daira of its tenants, up to the end of 1887 (the close of the auction), the Daira was unable to let a single acre of the sugar lands for 1888 in eight out of nine districts, and only 95 acres in the ninth district (the number offered to be let being about 25,000), and that, during the last 35 days of the said auctions, the Daira sent three special Commissioners to aid the Chief Governor in each of the districts to let the lands, but that the fellaheen refused to take a single acre except as aforesaid; and, whether Lieutenant Colonel Money, Inspector of the Daira, has thrown up his appointment rather than assent to these practices?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Sir JAMES FERGUSSON) (Manchester, N.E.)No circumstances corresponding to the statements implied by the Question of the hon. Gentleman have been reported to Her Majesty's Government.