§ MR. J. M. ROBERTSON (Northumberland, Tyneside)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to the facts that the electric and gas lighting of Cairo is the monopoly of a single company; that the Cairo water supply and the Cairo tramways system are each of them likewise held as monopolies; that the electric light contract has been extended by the Government for a further term of twenty years, so that it will expire only in 1948; that the Government has further waived its rights in this case to re-purchase at the end of thirty years; that the gas contract will likewise not expire till 1948; that the monopoly of the Cairo tramways company has latterly been extended by the Government for a further term of five years, so that it will not expire till 1951; whether he can state the duration of the concession to the Cairo water company, and, as regards all four monopolies, the financial terms on which they are held; by whom, on behalf of the Government, were the concessions negotiated; and whether he will instruct the British agent at Cairo to advise the Egyptian Government against the creation of any further monopolies or the extension of those in existence, as being against the public interest.
§ SIR EDWARD GREYI have no information on the subject of this Question. Similar arrangements exist in 1430 this country, and I am not prepared, nor indeed is it possible for me to interfere actively in such matters by sending special instructions to His Majesty's Consul-General in Egypt with regard to them, though the general question of preventing monopolies being created or extended against the public interest will not be lost sight of.