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THE QUESTION SUBMITTED 7

NO.

THE ISTHMUS OF SUEZ QUESTION

SUBMITTED TO THE PUBLIC OPINION OF ENGLAND.

"Aperire terram gentibus."

In the month of October, 1854, I left Europe for Egypt, in consequence of an invitation I had received from the new Viceroy, Mohammed Sa?d, who for twenty years has honoured me with his friendship. I had no mission from my Government. It was in the course of a journey across the Libyan desert from Alexandria to Cairo which I made in company with the Prince, that the question of cutting through the Isthmus of Suez, was for the first time mooted between us. He requested me to draw up a memorial on the subject, and, as my ideas met with his approbation, he issued to the Consuls General of foreign powers a firman , destined to receive the sanction of the Sultan, granting to a company composed of the capitalists of all nations without distinction, the right to construct a canal between the two Seas. Mr. Bruce, the agent of the British Government, was the first of the Consuls General who was informed of the Viceroy's project, so that France and England received intimation of it at the same time.

MM. Linant Bey and Mougel Bey, engineers, who have been engaged, the one for the last twenty, the other for the last thirty years, in the construction of important hydraulic works in Egypt, were appointed by the Viceroy to accompany me in an exploring expedition to the Isthmus of Suez, and to complete, by a fresh examination of the ground, the investigations they had already made.

This expedition was made during last December and January; after presenting an account of it to His Highness Mohammed Sa?d, I gave instructions , in his name, to the engineers, calculated to assist them in the preparation of their report.

In the month of March, MM. Linant Bey and Mougel Bey delivered the precursory scheme , which quite convinced the Viceroy of the possibility of executing this great undertaking in which he has taken the initiative. They establish by calculations and data, which may be verified by any one, that a maritime canal direct from Suez to Pelusium thirty leagues long, one hundred metres wide, and eight metres deep, extending sufficiently far into the two seas by means of jetties, to obtain the depth necessary to enable ships to enter without difficulty, having an inland port in the natural basin of Lake Timsah, and which should be completed in six years, would cost, at the most, 160,000,000 francs, ; or, about half the amount expended on the Great Northern railway from London to York, or on that between Paris and Lyons.

In a journey that I made to Constantinople, I ascertained that the Sultan and his ministers were favourable to the project, and I delivered to the Viceroy a letter from the Grand Vizier, in which he aptly characterized the opening of the Isthmus of Suez by a maritime canal as a work of the most useful and interesting character. His Highness immediately transmitted to the Divan, the documents, maps, and plans necessary for understanding the question of construction, and which were required for obtaining the sanction of the Sovereign.

I was then commissioned to return to Europe for the purpose of calling public attention to the subject and to take measures for organizing the undertaking, on a cosmopolitan basis in accordance with the principles which have from the commencement guided the projectors.

Prince Mohammed Sa?d has declared in his instructions , that the labours of his engineers, who at this moment are engaged in preparing their definitive scheme, shall be submitted to the judgment of engineers, chosen from England, from France, from Holland, from Germany, and from Italy; and that the organization of the Universal Company entrusted with the construction of the Canal shall be based upon the scientific decision of Europe.

Until then no call will be made on the shareholders, and, the administration of the Company being in the hands of capitalists and other persons of all nations, in proportion to the relative commercial importance of their country, they will not support the undertaking unless they are convinced that it will be to their interest to do so.

As England is evidently interested more than any other power in the construction of a canal through the Isthmus of Suez, my first step has been to come to London, both in order to ascertain the state of public opinion in England on this question, and also to give to all who desire it such information as will enable them fully to appreciate the moral and material aspects of the undertaking.

I have already remarked with satisfaction that, in general, men of intelligence with whom I have had the honour of conversing on the subject, do not admit that an event which would advance the interests of the whole world, could possibly do injury to the power or commerce of England. They frankly discard all idea of a prejudice against the project; they assert on the contrary, that if feasible their country cannot but gain by it, and that it would be a source of regret if the idea were entertained in France that what would be beneficial to other countries should not be of equal benefit to England.

Objections, however, which to my mind, I am proud to acknowledge, do honour to the candour of English politicians, have been made, in perfectly good faith, and without any feeling of distrust towards a friendly nation, the alliance with which, cemented by the blood of their brave armies, has been recently sanctioned by the unanimous demonstration of the English people, as it will shortly be by the people of France.

I shall reproduce these objections, and reply to them in very few words.

I begin by setting aside all those which relate to the supposed impossibility of execution, and to the idea that the canal can only be constructed at an expenditure out of proportion to the advantages reasonably to be expected.

If the canal should be found to be physically impossible, of course the scheme will not be entertained, and if European science should not make it clear that the advantages to be derived are commensurate with the expenses to be incurred, capitalists will not come forward.

The report of the engineers replies triumphantly to other objections respecting the sands of the desert, the alluvial deposits at Pelusium and Suez, and the navigation of the Red Sea.

It has been affirmed that the project of a canal might retard the construction of a railway from Alexandria to Suez, which the policy of England has always considered essential to her Indian interests.

Far from being retarded by the canal project, the railway will, on the contrary, be indebted to this very design, for its speedy completion; for it can only obtain sufficient returns from the activity occasioned by a considerable maritime commerce across the Isthmus of Suez. The Egyptian Government, which has already completed, at its own expense, the first two sections of the railway, viz., from Alexandria to the Nile, and from the Nile to Cairo, takes this view of the question, and is at the same time desirous of giving satisfaction to England, whose main object is to secure for her despatches and travellers the most direct and speedy route. The Viceroy, being thus persuaded, that of the two undertakings, the railway and the canal, each forms the complement of the other, has just decided on the completion of the third section, from Cairo to Suez. He has given the order for the rails to an English house, and engineers are at this moment engaged in levelling and in the superintendence of the earth-works.

But what is of greater moment, and indeed alone deserves the consideration of a people who have the fortunate custom of interesting themselves in their political affairs, is the apprehension conscientiously entertained by statesmen, whose right and whose duty it is to ask themselves and maturely to consider:--

The following passage from a recent publication replies to these objections:--

"The power in possession of Aden opens and shuts at its will the Red Sea, and if it is true that the influence of nations and governments chiefly depends on the good they can do to their friends and the harm they can do to their enemies, that revolution would be of no slight advantage to England which would lead the principal current of the world's commerce under the guns of her ships and the batteries of her fortresses. Besides, is it from the naval armaments of the Mediterranean that England has most reason to fear an invasion of India? It requires no more than ordinary foresight to perceive, that if her Indian possessions were ever seriously threatened, it could only be from Russia by land, and from North America by sea. In either case, the safety of her possessions would depend on the shortening of her line of operations.

"We may conclude from these observations, that there would be small risk of the opening of the Isthmus of Suez weakening the military power of Great Britain. Her commercial power could only be compromised by it, if it were possible for the multiplicity of her transactions with the East Indies to be decreased by shortening the intervening distance by 3000 leagues, or if it were possible for the producers and sellers of the commodities of the extreme East to lose by the consumption of them in Europe being doubled.

"If England must gain by the opening of the Isthmus an increase of military and commercial power, the genius of calculation within her will soon triumph over an ill-considered opposition. She will not sacrifice the positive elevation, the basis of which is enlarged by the developement of what surrounds it, to that relative elevation which is satisfied with the degradation of others, and she will not give any one the right to attribute to her, with regard to all the nations bordering on the Mediterranean, the language lately addressed by the Emperor Nicholas to the English Minister on the subject of Greece, and of the East. Such a policy she leaves to its fitting home. She does more, she opposes it by force of arms. Convinced that her strength lies in her power of expansion, and in her commercial capabilities, she endeavours by the prosperity of her neighbours to enlarge the basis of her own, and for this reason it is that she animates with her co-operation so many enterprises which enrich the Continent; no undertaking that she has ever assisted will prove more productive of beneficial results to herself than the operations at the Isthmus of Suez."

To the preceding quotation, which is conclusive, I add some figures which also have their value.

The Mediterranean ports will profit, it is true, by the opening of the Isthmus of Suez, but England with the 5,000,000 tons employed in her commerce--a tonnage greater than that of all the navies of Europe, including France, united--cannot fail to profit in a much greater degree by the increase of relations which must necessarily result from the shortening of the distance between the points of traffic; to this opening moreover she will be indebted for the inestimable advantage of finding herself in closer connection with her colonies, than another nation whose competition might otherwise be really formidable in the eyes of the upholders of an exclusive system.

But on the contrary, England, adopting the policy of commercial freedom, has been seen to favour the attempts which have been made to cut through the American Isthmus, although, if successful, it would bring the United States nearer the British possessions in India and still nearer to Australia. She is not, however, ignorant of the fact that the maritime commerce of the United States, which twenty years ago employed only 1,000,000 tons, now, in 1854, requires no less than 5,400,000, and that this vast tonnage, already larger than her own, is constantly increasing. But England on her part does not remain at a stand-still, and she has done well in showing no fear of the contest. The law of progress has been justified by official statistical documents. The burthen of the English ships built in 1842 was 130,000 tons; in 1843, shipping to the amount of 203,000 tons was built. It is especially since the relations of the United States with the Indian Seas have been extended, that the commerce of Great Britain has in those very regions experienced a still farther developement. Thus, the imports from the Indian Peninsula, which in 1849 amounted to ?9,238,000, had in 1853 increased to ?13,610,000. Those from China, which in 1849 were ?6,200,000, rose in 1853, to ?8,300,000. Again, the tonnage employed in the trade between Great Britain and her Eastern possessions, including the other countries in the Indian Seas, to and fro, amounted in 1849 to 967,076, and in 1853 to 1,595,138 tons.

I wrote the following from Cairo, December 3rd, 1854, to a friend of mine, a member of the British Parliament.

"If, as is not unlikely, the difficulties with which I am threatened should be brought forward, public opinion, so powerful in England, will soon do justice to interested opposition and superannuated objections."

Her Majesty's Government concluded with the United States, on the 19th of April, 1850, a treaty of neutrality for the projected canal through the American Isthmus. The cabinets of London and Paris are now on such intimate terms as to make it a matter of no difficulty for them to agree upon a convention, if it suited their political interests to do so, relative to the passage of the Isthmus of Suez, assimilating it to that of the Dardanelles. The other powers would not fail to give in their adhesion to the convention, which would be open to them.

In this manner commercial navigation would be guaranteed against the chances of war, and military armaments could neither remain in nor pass through the Isthmus without the permission of the Sovereign of the country.

The question of the importance to the commercial interests of Great Britain of cutting through the Isthmus of Suez, has been considered in the most favourable light by the principal men of science, engineers, economists, and public writers of England. I shall quote hereafter the opinions of Mr. Anderson, the present director of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and of Captain James Vetch, R. E., from their respective works. The fact of the question having been frequently treated with favour by the press, seems to show that it has already been accepted by the feeling of the country; the remarkable extract from the "Papers for the People" in the memorial of the engineers will be read with interest. The celebrated novelist, Charles Dickens himself, has not disdained to devote several eloquent pages to a very practical consideration of the project for constructing a canal through the Isthmus of Suez.

It is to be remarked that the English authors who have written upon this question, have, without exception, advocated the direct line from Suez to Pelusium. This view is taken by all the inhabitants of Egypt, and I doubt if the indirect line, complicated as it is by traversing the Nile, would have been adopted by two of my compatriots so distinguished as M. Baude and M. Paulin Talabot, if they had themselves been on the spot before they gave their opinions.

It is incumbent on me to add, that, although the two tracks may be entertained, theoretically speaking, practically only one is now to be thought of; for the Viceroy of Egypt, who consents to the cutting of the Isthmus, has a perfect right to refuse to allow the whole of Egypt to be cut through. He has, in his written instructions, specially charged me to make known his declaration, which is in the following terms:--

If it were necessary, reference might be made to the East India Company, the merchants of Australia, of Singapore, of Madras, of Calcutta and of Bombay, the commercial houses of the City, the shipowners of London and Liverpool, the manufacturers of Manchester, the proprietors of iron mines, the manufacturers of machines, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, the directors of banks and of extensive industrial undertakings, the Chambers of Commerce, the proprietors of coal-fields, who in 1854 exported 1,309,251 tons of coal, of the value of ?2,127,156, an amount which, immense as it already is, will be still farther increased, and to a considerable extent, by the opening of the Isthmus of Suez.

I appeal to their interests, and leave the decision to their judgment.

Lastly, the objection has been made, that the canal project would not be received with favour by the Turkish Government; but, like every question in which the principle is just, the consequences are infallible; and from whatever point of view we regard this question of the Isthmus of Suez, we see nothing but universal benefit arise from it.

As I have already remarked, I met with no opposition at Constantinople on the part of the Porte. Turkey is aware that the Canal of the two Seas is destined to add to her power and prosperity, by bringing Constantinople nearer by 4300 leagues to the Indian Ocean, and by facilitating the communication with the Holy Places of Arabia, the source of the authority the Sultan possesses over his Mussulman population.

Turkey can rise from her present languor only by borrowing capital and intelligence from Europe. The prosperity of the East is intimately connected at the present day with the interests of civilization in general, and the most effectual means of working its welfare, in connection with that of humanity, is to break down the barriers that still separate individuals, races, and nations.

War and commerce have civilized the world. War will have played out its part with that last effort which is being made under our eyes. The victories hereafter to be gained will be those of commerce only. Let us exert ourselves to open up for her a new route. This object may be pursued and attained--in the words of a great writer--"A travers les orages et les t?n?bres de la guerre."

Let us bring the populations of Polynesia, of Australia and China, of the Indies and of Africa, nearer to Europe; let us make them participators in the blessings of civilization.

To accomplish this great undertaking, we appeal to all religious and intelligent men, for it is worthy of their sympathy and co-operation.

We invoke the support of all statesmen, because in the establishment of new and easy means of communication between the two hemispheres all nations are interested. Lastly, we will address ourselves to the capitalists, when they have satisfied themselves of the pecuniary advantages to be derived from the undertaking.

FERD. DE LESSEPS.

London, July, 1855.

MEMORIAL ADDRESSED TO HIS HIGHNESS MOHAMMED SAID.

MEMORIAL ADDRESSED TO HIS HIGHNESS MOHAMMED SAID, VICEROY OF EGYPT.

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