87 O . IL.

July, with an estimated loss in earnings of some £E. 9,700. The estimated gross earnings for 1919 to 1920 are £E. 70,291, against £E. 97,290 in the previous year, and the estimated net earnings £E. 1,863.

The gross receipts of the Western Oasis Eailway for 1919 to 1920 are estimated at £E. 5,788 gross and £E. 167 net. Only one train a week in each direction runs on this line, and goods are conveyed by special train as required.

The following table shows the estimated financial results of the working of each of the light railway systems for 1919-20 compared with those of 1918-19 :— Egyptian Delta Light llaihv.ays.

Limited Socidtu anonymo des Oliemins do Fer de la Basso lilgypte (old system) Societd anonymo des Ghemins de For de la Basse figypte (new system) Fayyiim Ijight Kailway Company ..

Kilometres of Line open to Traffic.

901 102 101 1;')S Gros.s Keceipte, 1919-20.

£E. 390,000 73,250 'M.535 55,000 Gross Keceipts, 1918-19.

£E. 356,892 63,621 37,109 50,061 Net Keceipts, 1919-20.

£E. 160,000 30,302 26,580 16.500 Net Keceipts, 1918-19.

£E. 172,8-15 2-1,470 18,520 22,203 55. Post Office.

The amount of correspondence handled by the Post Office declined gradually from 81 million letters, &c., in 1914, to 72 million in 1917, but rose to 84 million in 1918 and 91 million in 1919. Security was on the whole very satisfactory, only twenty-five registered letters being lost between 1914 and 1918 out of a total of 22 million which passed through the post offices. In 1919, excluding letters pillaged in the attacks upon the railways, six registered letters were lost out of a total of nearly five million.

The nurnber of parcels dealt with increased year by year from 890,000 in 1914 to 1,727,000 in 1918; this is attributable to the fact, which I have mentioned elsewhere, that owing to the comparative regularity and cheapness of the p-arcel post, many traders took to importing their goods by this nieans. In 1919 1,432;495 parcels were dealt with. The cash-on-delivery parcel service with G-reat Britian exioanded throughout the period of the war, 10,742 such parcels, of a value of £E. 18,709 being received in 1914, and 44,281 of a value of £E. 179,621 in 1918. Possibly owing to the withdrawal of troops from it a notable decline occurred in 1919. A direct parcels service from the United States has now been established.

In the cash branches of the post office the value of inland money orders issued increased from approximately 5 million pounds in 1914 to approximately 8 millions in 1918. Foreign money orders, after a slight decline in 1915, increased very heavily in 1917 and 1918, principally owing to remittances to India being sent through the Post Office for the sake of advantage in exchange; in 1918 they reached a vmue of £E. 3,374,737. The issue of British postal orders decreased until 1918, when there was a recovery, but the value in that year was only half that of 1914; the value of those received, on the other hand, was increased chiefly by remittances in favour of British troops, from £E. 16,310 in 1914 to £E. 78,328 in 1918. Egyptian postal orders were inaugurated in 1915 by His Highness the late Sultan, and have clearly supplied a want, for they increased in value from £E. 90,000 in 1915 to £E. 285,600 in 1918. In 1919 all branches of the cash service showed a decrease in the number of transactions, though the total value of the orders dealt with, £E. 14,858,215, is slightly in excess of the preceding year. While the number of British postal orders issued rose by 7,500, the number paid declined by as much as 24-6 per cent, and amounted only to 99,166.

The Savings Ba.nk suffered in August and September 1914 from the nervousness of depositors, but this was soon allayed when it become apparent that funds were lortlicoming as usual. Special arrangements were subsequently made to allow redeposits. even if they exceeded the regulation amount of £E. 50. In 1915 deposits began to exceed withdrawls; by the end of 1917 the level of pre-war deposits was passed, and in 1918 deposits reached the sum of £E. 933,826, an increase of 011 previous year. In 1919 the number of depositors rose from 211,970 to 224,759, and the amount to their credit for the first time exceeded a million House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.