PZ 5636/35 'Egypt: Annual Reports 1934 -1938' [‎47r] (100/342)

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Abolition of Capitulations.
A Inimediately after the signature, on the 26th Aunust 19S6 of tt>p
advf^s S o§ice n to m«k y ’ th< ; ba f y . began ’ ■“ collal » I 'ation ,:, with the ’judicial
Mviser s olhce, to make a study of the questions raised by the promise of His
Powerffor^I^hTf to r’i? p0 t t her approach" to the Capitulatory
the ved i! 1 abolition of the Capitulations by consent. By the beginning of
?? 5 Pifparatory work had so far advanced that it was possible to invite
i]ndor g iSipt^i^°^ e fr m f nt + tC> C °^ lder i the ^ oint P lan of cam paign contemplated
ndei article 13 of the treaty. That these preliminary negotiations were success-
iy undertaken and a resulting agreement arrived at which was largely
instrumental m bringing about the eventual success of the Montreux Conference,
is due to a degree impossible to exaggerate, to the help which was given by
Mr. W. T. Beckett, the second legal adviser to the Foreign Office, who was sent
out to assist, and who arrived in Egypt on the 13th January.
Beckett stayed in Egypt for just under a month. During this
time he and Mr. Kelly were in daily touch with Bedawi Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. and Mr. Besly,
the acting judicial adviser at that time, who had been appointed by the Egyptian
Government to take part in the technical discussions. At first, 'Bedawi Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
showed a strong inclination to oppose the grant of the safeguards insisted upon
by His Majesty’s Government as the conditions on which alone their full support
could be given to the demands of the Egyptian Government, but this opposition
was overcome, partly by erosion and partly by reference on important points to
the superior authority of the Council of Ministers, which was always approach
able through the conciliatory medium of Makram Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. . Eventually a series
of heads of agreement on all matters to which His Majesty’s Government attached
importance was arrived at and initialled on behalf of both Governments. The
document so initialled became known and is hereinafter referred to as
Document (A).
123. It was, however, clearly understood (and this point became of
considerable importance at Montreux with reference to the non-inclusion in the
jurisdiction of the Mixed Courts of companies formed after the 15th October)
that the Egyptian Government did not undertake by initialling Document (A)
to include all its provisions in the convention. Document (A) prescribed the
limits of concession to which the Egyptian Government must go in order to meet
the demands of the other Capitulatory Powers if they were to enjoy the full
support of His Majesty’s Government. They were not bound to go beyond such
limits.
124. During the preliminary negotiations, the procedure to be adopted in
approaching the other Governments concerned was also discussed and agreed
upon. It was decided that the Egyptian Government should invite all the
Capitulatory Powers to send representatives to a conference to be held at
Montreux in April, and that the invitations should be conveyed in a document
(known as Document (B)) which should set out the Egyptian proposals for the
abolition of the capitulations and the establishment of a new legislative and
judicial regime in Egypt, without mentioning the concessions which they were,
in fact, prepared to make, and thus leaving the necessary margin for bargaining
at the conference. These invitations were sent out on the 3rd February addressed
to the diplomatic representatives in Egypt of all the Capitulatory Powers, to
be communicated by them to their Governments. Although other Powers which
enjoyed at the time Mixed Courts jurisdiction did not receive this invitation,
the Egyptian Government stated in Document (B) that, during the transition
period,'the jurisdiction of the Mixed Courts would be extended to eight States
other than the Capitulatory Powers, viz., Germany, Austria, Hungary, Switzer
land, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Roumania and Yugoslavia. This was m accordance
with the promise in Document (A).
125. At the Montreux Conference in April Mr. Kelly was a member of the
British delegation, and Mr. Besly, acting judicial adviser, was attached to the
Egyptian delegation in an advisory capacity. The proceedings are fully recorded
in’ Captain Euan Wallace’s report to the Secretary of State (Foreign Office
confidential print, “ Egypt and Sudan,” Section I, June 11, 1937) and the results
are embodied in the convention with its annexed protocol, declaration and
exchanges of letters, and in the new “ Reglement d’Organisation judiciaire ” of
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