§ Mr. LUPTONasked the Secretary for Foreign Affairs if he has any official information showing that the amount of serious crime in Egypt in 1908 was not 2 per cent in excess of the crime in 1908, and that the total of crimes and minor offences in 1908 was actually less than in 1907; if he is aware that the Judicial Adviser of the Egyptian Government, in his last Report, said that real crime was exaggerated by the statistics, that his own impression was 2134 that the proportion of unreported crime had not been at any time so small, and that there were very few crimes of brigandage and highway robbery by armed bands such as filled the criminal calendars some 20 years ago; and will he say if the Ordinance of 4th July, under which persons can be condemned to banishment and detention without being convicted of any offence, is founded upon these statistics and this Report of the Judicial Adviser?
§ Mr. MCKINNON WOODAs stated in the reply to the hon. Member's question of the 7th inst., the statistics of crime in Egypt for the last three years will be found in Sir Eldon Gorst's last annual Report. I have since received further information from His Majesty's Acting Agent and Consul-General at Cairo giving the number of crimes committed during the first seven months of each of the years 1907, 1908, and 1909. The total of crimes during these periods increased from 1,821 in 1907 to 2,010 in 1908, and to 2,353 in 1909; while the number of homicides and attempted homicides, which it is hoped the new law will be especially efficacious in checking, increased from 598 in 1907 to 721 in 1908, and to 923 in the present year. The hon. Member has correctly quoted certain statements from the Report of the Judicial Adviser to the Egyptian Government, but he has omitted the important statement that "the real increase in crime has undoubtedly been considerable." The new law is not founded on any special report, and, as far as statistics are concerned, it must be remembered that it is mainly aimed at offences of the most serious class. On the difficulty of obtaining evidence in such cases, the hon. Member will find much information in the last Report of the Judicial Adviser, from which he has quoted.
§ Mr. LUPTONIs it true that the Judicial Adviser of the Egyptian Government said that the real crime was exaggerated by the statistics?
§ Mr. MCKINNON WOODI think that remark must be qualified by the remark I quoted from the same authority, that "the real increase in crime has undoubtedly been considerable."