Printed papers on the political situation and military policy in Egypt [‎52v] (104/176)

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to maintain the level of sales. The sale of the surplus stocks was delayed by a belief
in certain quarters that world's parity would improve. That expectation was
disappointed : prices continued to declme, prospective buyers grew scarce, and the
favourable moment for unloading had slipped by. In the end the Supplies
Department had to accept offers which contrasted poorly with those made a few
weeks earlier.
249. Early in the summer of 1921, it became necessary to consider whether Egypt
would require all of the 160,000 tons wheat and flour, ordered from abroad in the
preceding autumn, in anticipation of a diminished local wheat crop. The
agricultural prospect had altered completely. Cultivators, unable to sell cotton,
had increased voluntarily the areas under cereals and pulses. It was clear in these
circumstances that 1921-22 production would be much in excess of that of previous
years, and large quantities, therefore, of the new imports have been sold abroad.
At the end of May, Government stocks will be exhausted, and future deficiencies
in local production must be met through ordinary trade channels.
250. The cost of the Government’s policy in importing cereals and pulses during
the last three years, has been heavy; but the policy has succeeded, at least, in main
taining local prices at a figure, which at critical moments, has been below world’s
parities. It may be said without hesitation that throughout the period of distress
and shortage common to so many countries, Egypt has enjoyed ample and relatively
cheap food supplies.
251. The entry of the Supplies Department into the butchers' meat markets
of Cairo and Alexandria, coincided with the fall of cotton values. Throughout
1920, these markets had been kept deliberately and systematically short of supplies
by meat purveyors, who had thus been in a position to exercise complete control of
prices. The Department had no desire to inlerfere with purveyors’ profits, but was
keenly interested that sufficient meat should be in the markets to satisfv the needs
of every consumer. Efforts to persuade purveyors to increase supplies proved
ineffectual, however, and the Department was forced itself to import stock from the
Soudan. But, as in the case of cereals and pulses, the acute fall in cotton prices
radically changed the meat situation. Egyptian cultivators, forced to realise on
what they could, sold stock to the butchers’ meat markets; the necessity of importing
disappeared, and the Department withdrew from its operations as speedily as
possible.
252. Under successive arrangements with the Society generale des Sucreries et
de la Raffinerie d'Egypte, the export of sugar from Egypt has been officially con
trolled for several years past, and latterly the import and the local price have also
been controlled. The result has been not only to secure a sufficient supply of sugar
for Egypt and the Soudan usually at a price considerably below the world price, but
also very greatly to stimulate the Egyptian sugar industry.
253. The arrangement concluded in January 1921 for the ensuing year
guaranteed to the Societe generale des Sucreries a sale of 75,000 tons of sugar in
Egypt and the Soudan at £E. 56 a ton on condition of their buying the local sugar
crop at P.T. 9^ a kantar.
254. The crop was unexpectedly large, and encouraged by a belief in the continued
firmness of the world’s sugar market the cultivators laid down in the spring of 1921
an acreage largely in excess of the normal. During the summer the sugar market
broke. This stopped the company's export trade and produced a sudden reversal of
local conditions. The termination of the agreement-year found the Egyptian price,
hitherto below world’s parity, more than £E. 20 a ton above it: the company, with
its export trade gone and enough sugar in hand or in sight, on its own lands, to supply
Egypt for more than two years ahead, was averse to increasing its stocks, whereas
the cultivator was saddled with an unusually large crop for this year and next, which
the sugar company was only prepared to buy, if at all. at less than a fair market
value based on world’s parity.
255. In these circumstances, and in order to liquidiate the situation gradually,
a further agreement was concluded with the sugar company early in 1922. by which
the company undertook to purchase the standing crop (maturing in the winter of
1922-23) at P.T. 6 a kantar, against a guaranteed sale of 60,000 Tons of sugar at an
average price of £E. 35 a ton.
256. With this exception, and a still continued prohibition of the export of
gold, all the economic restrictions by the Government which were necessitated by
the war have now been abolished. Considerable criticism was aroused by with
drawing restrictions on the export of certain commodities, notably einrs and rice.
But the action of the Supplies Department was fully justified by the results