§ MR. J. M. MACDONALDI beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has yet received the Report on the Cairo drainage schemes.
§ THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Mr. MCKINNON WOOD,) Glasgow, St. RolloxWe have now received a Report from His Majesty's agent at Cairo respecting 1775 the proposed drainage of that town. As previous Questions have been asked on this subject, I may state that it appears eleven different schemes for the drainage were prepared before a decision was come to on the subject. As regards opportunities for public discussion, the whole subject has been frequently ventilated in the local Press during the last few years. The actual scheme now accepted has not been submitted to the consideration of any public body, because there does not exist in Egypt any suitable body which could profitably consider proposals of such a highly technical nature. The scheme was drawn up by Mr. Carkeek James, Controller-General of the Cairo drainage works, who had previously successfully carried out the drainage of the city of Bombay. He devoted his entire time to the study of problems connected with the Cairo drainage for more than eighteen months, and his final proposals received the entire approval of Mr. Graham, Director-General of the Department of Public Health, of Sir William Garstin, the then Adviser to the Ministry of Public Works, and finally of the Council of Ministers. We are informed that a portion of the approved scheme of drainage is on the Shone system. This system of raising sewage by compressed air has, in the last twenty-eight years, been used in 300 towns all over the world, and the sewage of the Houses of Parliament is so lifted. There is now no patent in connection with this system. As regards the construction of the various sections into which the work is divided, it is intended to ask for tenders, open to all, by notice in the Official Journal in the usual manner.