تقرير البعثة الخاصة إلى مصر بقيادة اللورد ميلنر، وأوراق ذات صلة [و‎‎١‎٢‎١] (٤٧٣/٢٤٣)

THE ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF £HE REPORT OP THE
MIL HER COmiSSION ON EGYPT.
preliminary Memorandimi ty the Board of Trade.
r The politio&i aspects and consequences of the proposals
ot Lord Milner^ Commission are so important and far-reaching,
tjiat their purely economic effects are liable to be overlooked.
It is proposed in the present note to consider in a preliminary
way what safeguards are necessary for British oonmeroial and
shipping interests (and incidentally for the commercial and
shipping interests of other civilized countries) if the Egyptian
Grovernment is in future to be virtually uncontrolled by Great
Britain.
How far it is really intended to remove British control is
not indeed quite clear. The document signed by the Commission
on March 3rd differs very materially from that forwarded to
Mr#Soott of the Foreign Office on August 21st after the conversa
tions with the Egyptian Delegates. It is presumed, however,
that the latter of the two documents is that which we have now
to consider.
Tariff and external commercial relations.
The British linpire has a larger interest than any other
country in the external trade of Egypt, and the question of the
Tariff leviable on inserts into and exports from that country
therefore concerns us more nearly than any other Power.
In the Appendix to this Paper r/ill be found a detached
examination of the statistics of Egypt*s foreign trade, from
yfoich it will be seen that more than half the imports of Egypt
are derived from the Empire, goods to the value of nearly 22
millions sterling having been imported from the United Kingdom
in 1919 and goods to the value of 5-J millions from other parts
of the Empire, out of total Imports valued at rather over 47
millions. France, Italy and "the United States each contributed
between 2 and 3 millions sterling. Nearly half the imports
from the United Kingdom consisted of Cotton piece goods of v-hich
only insignificant quantities were imported from any other source
Of the exports of Egypt (over 00 per cent, of the value of
which consist of raw cotton) substantially more than half are
directed to the United Kingdom, which relies on Egypt as the
main source of supply of the finer description of Cotton. A
substantial and increasing quanti'ey of Egyptian Cotton is sent
to the United States and France, Italy and Switzerland account
for nearly the whole of the remaining consumption of this
Article. Practically the whole of the export of cotton-seed
(which is next in importance to Cotton in the Egyptian export
trade) is sent to this Country.
♦
At present the Import Tariff of Egypt is for the most
part at the rate of 8 $ ad valorem , a legacy from the previous
connection of Egypt with Turkey before the 0$ tariff of the
latter country was raised by consent to the present 11 ^ level.
In 1889 and following years a systematic effort seems to have
been made, without much success, to secure greater tariff free
dom for Egypt by negotiations with other countries. The
results of these negotiations may he summarised briefly as