File of printed papers marked 'Egyptian negotiation' between Curzon and Adly Pasha and the Egyptian delegation [‎58r] (115/178)

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Mr. Lindsay said that this was not at all the case. What foreigners were afraid
of was a purely native administration, with power to abuse them. He had done his
best to make this clear.
Adly Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. said that above all things the foreigners feared the loss of the
Capitulations. If they were now to be given a Judicial Commissioner, when an
attempt was made to abolish the Capitulations, foreigners would insist on further
guarantees.
Mr. Lindsay said that in addition to their capitulary privileges the foreigners who
had settled, or who were conducting business in Egypt, knew that they enjoyed
complete security owing to British influence arising out of the occupation.
Rushdi Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. said that the British occupation only dated from 1882, and before
that foreigners had had no security other than that provided by the Capitulations.
Mr. Lindsay interjected that before 1882 injustice and oppression were rife, and
that was the state, of affairs to which he did not wish Egypt to revert. He had
explained the suggestions which the Foreign Office wished to make, and a written
formula had already been supplied to the delegation.
Rushdi Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. said that the formula was very vague.
Mr. Lindsay said that it was necessarily vague.
Rushdi Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. said that he had prepared a reply, wdiich he handed to Mr. Lindsay
(see Annex (A) ).
Mr. Lindsay promised to consider it.
Adly Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. said that the result was that Mr. Lindsay insisted on the presence of
someone who could fulfil the functions assigned to him in Lord Curzon’s formula.
M as it not possible that some other definition of his functions might be found ?
Mr. Lindsay said that he was very anxious to find another definition or formula,
but, whenever he attempted to do so, llushdi Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. raised his hands in protest. He
had given the matter a great deal of consideration, and had not confined himself to the
exact text of Lord Curzon’s formula.
Adly Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. then drew attention to the passage in the Milner Report on p. 39,
which read: “Subject to these safeguards for the special interests of Great Britain,
and the protection of foreign rights, we hold that the Government of Egypt should be
restored in fact to what it has always, during our occupation, been in theory—a
Government of Egypt by Egyptians.”
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Mr. Lindsay said that he accepted this proposal provided that means could be
found to enable foreigners to live peaceably in P^gypt, as long as they behaved
themselves. They had been able to live peaceably there hitherto, because for the last
forty years, in addition to the Capitulations, there has been strong British influence
throughout the Government. The delegation now proposed that this British influence
should be greatly diminished, and consequently it would be necessary, to convince
foreigners that their conditions of life in l£gypt would still be tolerable.
Adly Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. said, assuming that the Egyptians were to govern themselves, what
safeguards was it necessary to give to foreigners ? They were of two kinds, legislative
and administrative. The legislative safeguards might for a moment be disregarded, as
they already existed, and it was not now proposed immediately to modify them. There
remained therefore the administrative safeguards. The delegation held that the
Capitulations provided all the necessary guarantees, whereas Mr. Lindsay argued that
this was not the case, because the British influence hitherto exercised in the Egyptian
Government provided a further and important guarantee.
Adly Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. was not prepared unreservedly to accept this proposition, because he
felt himself that the Capitulations were sufficient to satisfy the foreigners. Besides, if
they were given something new now, they would only ask for more when they were
invited to surrender their exterritorial privileges.
Rushdi Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. suggested that the difficulty might be got over by the insertion in
the treaty of a provision which would ensure some such guarantee as was now proposed
becoming effective at the moment when the Capitulations were actually suppressed.
Mr. Murray said that the situation appeared to him to be, roughly, as follows : In
1915, in the conditions then obtaining in Egypt, it would have been possible for His
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