14 has recently adopted a 48-hours' week, and granted its employees more liberal conditions of leave ; a large increase of permanent and temporary staff has, therefore,, been necessary, involving au additional expenditure of £E. 81,396. The staffs of the State Telegraphs of the Post Office have also been considerably increased for similar reasons. The high cost of labour and upkeep figures largely in the increased expenditure of the Ports and Lights Administration, the Main Roads Department and the Bridges Department. The Mechanical Transport and Inland Navigation Departments are new creations.

Under the heading “ Provinces and Governorate" appears an increase of £E. 731,104 in ordinary expenditure: this is chiefly accounted for by the rise in salaries, but in part by the enlargement of the police and ghafir forces and the enhanced cost of forage and rations.

In spite of an economy of £E. 20,000 wliich results from the disbanding of the Camel Corps, the ordinary expenditure of the Ministry of War increases by £E. 188,626; this is attributable to the higher scale of pay and the greater costoi transport, forage and rations.

New works, which have necessarily remained in comparative abeyance during the i>ast few years, figure in the current Budget for £E. 5,654,080, or £E. 2,012,061 in excess of the previous year. The largest credit is that for the Irrigation Department, which amounts to £E. 1,580,467. This will be mainly devoted to an extensive improvement of the canals and drains of Lower Egypt, as a preliminary to the reclamation of very large areas of lake and marshy land which will be undertaken as increased supplies of water become available for their irrigation. Pending the report of the commission which has been appointed to examine the important schemes of the Ministry of Public Works for regulating the waters of the Upper Nile, no provision for the execution of these schemes has been made in the Budget.

Among other credits for new works are £E. 1,239,000 for the State railways; £E. 729,770 for the Ports and Lights Administration (£E. 400,000 for the improvement of Suez Harbour, and £E. 202,000 for Alexandria Harbour); £E. 351,582 for the State Buildings Department; £E. 267,018 for the Cairo City Service, or “ Tanzim ”; £E. 175,060 for the Main Drainage Department (including £E. 50,000 for the installation of drainage at Suez and Mansura); £E. 165,650 for the Department of Mines, to provide for the boring of wells in the oil-bearing areas bordering the Red Sea, and for the construction of a petroleum refinery at Suez; £E. 165,000 for the repair of His Highness the Sultan’s yacht which has lain at Constantinople since 1914; £E. 118,000 for the Mechanical Transport Department, for the creation of garages in Cairo and Alexandria and for the purchase of motor vehicles; £E. 111,902 for the Ministry of Interior, chiefly for new works, in connection with the supply of water and light, to be executed on behalf of local commissions; and £E. 102,000 for the improvement of the State Domains, an outlay which should be recovered in a few years in the form of increased revenues.

In concluding this survey of the current Budget, I quote from the Financial Adviser’s note the following remarks, which appear to me to constitute a just appreciation of the outlook :— “ Broadly speaking, it may be said that the budgetary position gives, at any rate for the moment, and provided that no further heavy increase of expenditure is called for, no serious ground for uneasiness. The situation wiU never be altogether free from difficulty so long as the present restrictions on Egypt’s fiscal arrangements continue. The impossibility of imposing taxation in proportion to wealth, and equally on local and foreign subjects, tends to render the present system- both inelastic and inequitable. Neither the land tax nor the uniform ad mlorem system of Customs ’dues is a satisfactory form of taxation. The former, which was designed to represent approximately 25 per cent, of the rental value of the land, no longer bears a proportion approaching the above figure. The uniformity of the import duty, whether applied to luxuries or to necessaries of life, is equally open to objection. The practically complete exemption of foreign subjects and foreign companies from taxation on the wealth which they may derive from this country is a serious blot on the existing system. The limitations on local taxation seriously hamper all municipal development.

“ Needless to say that the estimates assume the maintenance of public tranquillity, an indispensable condition of national prosperity. The impossibility of obtaining at present sufficient supplies of coal, which may react unfavourably on the railway receipts, besides causing grave inconvenience to House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.