SECOND STAGE OF INTERVENTION. 187 Meanwhile, the pressure of debt was augmenting rapidly. On the loth of June the tribute payable to\ Turkey fell due, without there being funds in the J Treasury to meet the payment. On the 15th of the / same month the Grand Syndicate of Paris gavel notice that they were going to summon a meeting I of bondholders, in order to obtain their sanction for \ an application to the International courts to issue/ execution in respect of the payments in arrears due/ to the bondholders. It became clear that bankruptcy! was imminent. In view of the demands for immey diate settlement of individual claims, the tactics of the Khedive consisted in suggesting various expedients similar to those he had submitted to Nubar, by which a financial crisis might be postponed. The Commission, however, refused to consider any partial solutions, and insisted that the Debt of Egypt must be settled, if at all, by some composition, comprehending, in as far as possible, all classes of her creditors. At last, on the eve of their adjournment for the summer holidays, the Commissioners made a report, in which they laid down, as one of the necessary conditions of any satisfactory settlement of the financial position, that the Khedive should surrender to the State the lands, amounting in round numbers to a million acres, which he had appropriated during his reign, or had purchased out of the revenues of the State. .When this report appeared, Ismail recognized that the game was up, and that, in order to save the ship, it was necessary to throw the cargo overboard.