تقرير البعثة الخاصة إلى مصر بقيادة اللورد ميلنر، وأوراق ذات صلة [و‎‎١‎٧‎١] (٤٧٣/٣٤٤)

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Lord Curzon.
Attached hereto you will find a suggested draft of the
amendments you desire in the Milner Memorandum. I have pro
ceeded upon the assumption that the revised draft is not to con
stitute the draft treaty, but merely to indicate alterations
which are thought to be necessary in the proposed "Basis of an
Understanding" agreed between Lord Milner and Lagloul. It
probably will be wise to leave the earlier draft unaltered so
far as possible and limit the modifications to points which are
regarded as essential.
The provisions in the draft which you handed to me yesterday
on the subject of a reserv e fund seem to me to be unnecessary.
These provisions are on the lines of those which were suggested
by the Treasury at the time of the negotiations with the French
in 1917. At that time the idea was that the Commission of the
Debt should be abolished, but the arrangement with Egypt which is
outlined in the Memorandum provides for the transfer to the
Financial Adviser of the powers of the Commission of the Debt.
This means that certain Egyptian revenues, amply sufficient to
pay the interest on the debt, will be placed under the control
of that official and will enable him to ensure that there is no
default in the payment of the half-yearly coupons and renders the
creation of any new reserve fund unnecessary.
I have not inserted the provision which was in the draft you
gave me yesterday, prohibiting Egypt from contracting any further
external loans. You did not mention it as one of the points to
which attention had been drawn. The National Bank of Egypt is
a financial house of sufficient strength to issue any loan which
the Egyptian Government desired to raise, but a loan issued by
that Bank could scarcely be described as external debt as it is
an Egyptian company, sad Egypt is now so wealthy that this pro
vision really seems unnecessary.
I have also omitted the provisions in the new draft relating
to the Soudan, as the arrangement under which the Memorandum was
agreed/
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