HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Centennial, 1956-06-28, Page 7SOLD SUEZ CANAL TO PAY
GAMBLING DEBTS
They say that the children born
to parents of rnixed races inherit,
sot the virtues of both races, but
their vices. History may not bear
out that theory, but It is certainly
true that a uian whose upbringing
Dan tainted him with the vices of
two entirely different worlds will •
be hard to match as an example of
out - and - out depravity.
Prince Ismail was such a mon.
Born to the traditions of Oriental
despotism, when the slightest wish
of the ruling caste was a thing
instantly to be gratified, at what-
ever cost of human digalty and
Justice, Ismail was educated to
regard self - indulgence as the
chief prerogative of royalty.
Cringing servants, flattering and
obsequious palace officials taught
Ismail — as princes had been
taught in the East from time hie
memorial — that he was born to
have his most outrageous wishes
satisfied. •
But Ismail also carie of a fight. ..
Ing race. As well as being great
voluptuaries, his family. had also
been great soldiers; and when, by
Oriental standards, Ismail was
grown to manhood, his uncle, the
Vail Said Mohammed Viceroy of
Egypt, seint young Ismail to Paris,
to study the modern — Western —
science of war at the French Staff
College.
In his favour, it can be said that
he was diligent pupil at the Staff
College — but the glittering, cor-
rupt Paris of the Second Empire
Aad other things to teach Ismail
than` gunnery and field tactics.
Besides, there was ample money
to smooth his path to the very
Emits of viciousness. His allow-
ance was, as became a prince —
princely. Credit was unlimited.
But, in addition, Egypt was, at
that time, the happy hunting
ground of shady foreign financiers
—and the Paris of Napoleon III
was the very home of shady fin-
ance
Knowing that Ismail would one
day rule Egypt, the financiers
were quite willing to finance the
prince's dubious pleasures, against
the day when he wouldbe in a
position to grant them valuable
eoneessions on Egypt.
It was a wonderful Paris, to a
man with few moral scruples
end a seemeingly unlimited purse.
To the strains of Offenbach's music,
fortunes were won and lost at the
Tables and, so far as Ismail was
concerned, they were lost.
His losses at the gaming tables
astonished even the hardened and
eanical socialites of the day, and
iantastichUy. Yet the losses only
sharpened Ismail's appetite for
gambling; it had soon become
what it was to remain all his life,
his constant and inescapable vice,.
His elder brother baying died
some denied that he bad been
allowed to die a natural death! —
the way was clear for Ismail's
succession. Said Mohammed died
when Ismail was thirty-three, and
Ismail having succeeded to the title
of Vali of Egypt — a title that he
soon got his overlord, the Sultan
of • Turkey, to elevate to that of
Khedive — be promptly showed
that none of his habits had altered,
when within an incredibly short.
space of time, be raised the nation
al debt of Egypt from a bare
$10,0OO,000 to. over five hundred
nililioris.
The Suez Canal had been started
by Ferdinand de Lesseps — after
lengthy negotiations with the for -
neer Egyptian ruler, Said Moham-
med — just four years before Is -
mail's accession.
Ismail's first act was to black-
mail the Suez Canal Company in-
to parting up with a great deal
more money than bad been accepted
by Said Mohammed when he
granted the original concession.
That meant a lot more money for
Isniail's harem and steam yachts
and gambling.
But it was not sufficient. Then
the American Civil War cut off
the American supplies of cotton to
Lancashire — and up went the
demand for Egyptian cotton. Sud-
denly, the Egyptian cotton crop,
which hail been worth only
$15,000,000 in Said Mohammed's
day, was worth $75,000,000 a year
to Ismail — and only about 10 per-
cent. of that huge stem was spent
on the nation!
And the gambling went on as
wildly as ever. Concessions were
sold right and left, revoked and
re- sold again at a higher price.
' Nothing which came in — and what
carie totalled tens of millions of
pounds — was sufficient ,to cope
with the frenzied gambling which
was Ismail's all -engrossing vice.
Judgments were given against
Egypt's ruler in international
courts, and both Germany and Aust-
ria began to make war -like prepara-
tions to enforce some of the judge-
ments on behalf of their nationals.
By 1875, six years after the Freneh
Empress Eugenie, on board the Im-
perial yacht, L'Aigle, had ceremo-
nially opened the Suez Canal,
Egypt was internationally bank-
rupt. Not even the shadiest, most
reckless of financiers would lend
another penny.
All that the princely gambler
bad left, in the way of security,
were his 177,000 shares in the Suez
SHE MMS TO WIN, PODNER—Loading up for another round is
Marta Perdue, during the international pigeon shotting meet in
Rome, Italy. Marta was one of the American representatives
matching her skills with experts from all over the world.
SAFE ON WILD THROW - Pete Whisenant, Cubs outfielder, ducks
his head as he leaps safely onto first base in the second inning
of the Chicago -New York Giants game at Chicago. Whisenant
grounded to Hank Thompson who threw wild and over the head
of Giants first baseman Bill White (foreground).
Canal Company.
This represented just on half
the total share -holding, since the
original capital of the Company
had been 200,000,000 francs div-
ided into 400,000, shares' of 50
francs value.
Already, in the six years that the
world's shipping had been •passing
through the Canal, it had been evi-
dent• that those shares held by
Egypt must .represent a fabulous
source of ;national income, ' an in-
comethat poverty-stricken Egypt
desperately needed.
Yet, having gambled away almost
all his country's wealth — and per-
manently damaged her interna-
tional credit the crazed gambler
was now•preparing to rob his coun-
try of her one certain source of
wealth. — by pawning or selling his
shares in the Suez Canal Company.
One day, a top priority coded
telegram reached Britain's Prime
Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, warn-
ing him that the Khedive of Egypt
was on the point of parting with
his Canal shares.
"Informed opinion" in Britian
had sneered at the Canal because
the French were planning and
building it, but the few years in
which it had been opened had
demonstrated, beyond all argn-
ment, that Britain's empire In .the
East, and her Australasian colonies
as well, were now dependent upon
Britain's keeping the Canal from
falling under the control of a rival
power.
The telegram arrived at a week-
end, after both Houses of Parlia-
ment had risen. The price that
the Khedive was asking was
$12,000,000 in cash. What was
more, the telegram stated decisive,-
ly, the Khedive had to have the
money within a few hours. There
was not even time to summon mem-
hers of Parliament, to vote the nec-
essary cash to buy the shares.
Disraeli, at that moment, showed
the highest qualities of statesman-
ship. On his own authority he
summoned a member of the great
banking firm of Rothschild, and
told the banker bluntly that he
wished to borrow $12,000,000.
When the banker learned why, he
instantly advanced the money. A
telegram was sent to Cairo — and,
the 177,000 shares of the Sw'z
Canal Company shanged hands,
to become the property of the
British Government.
Disraeli, when he presented the
House of Commons with the news,
got nothing but congratulations
It was a wonderful day in the
history of the British Empire —
,I
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True happiness
springs from
Moderation
GOETHE
(1749 -1832)
the 3touse
Met1 who think of tomorrow practice moderation today
{((i)LlJnn'
esehel
as well as in the history of Egypt—
when nearly half the shares of the
Suez Canal Company passed into
,British ownership.
It • was good business, too, apart,
from any question of Empire
security. In one year alone, the
dividend on the $12,000,000 invest-
ment has totalled $4,500,000 —
tax- free, and the figure is always
rising. It is estimated that Ismail's
sale will have lost his country the
better part of two hundred million
pounds before the Suez Canal, by
the terms of the original concession,
reverts to the possession of the
Egyptian Government on November
17th, 1068.
That's gambling for you!
Fine Gifts For
Conservation
The 1956 Canadian National
Sportsmen's Show recorded a
net profit of $74,301 despite in-
clement weather which slightly
reduced attendance, Frank H.
Kortright, President, informed
the annual meeting.
Income from the sale of com-
mercial exhibit space reached
an all-time high of $113,277, the
financial statement indicated.
The net income from the pro-
gram, concessions and lounge
chalked up gains over the pre-
vious year, as well.
During the fiscal year just
ended the Canadian National
Sportsmen's Show made grants
totalling $64,000 to various pro-
jects and organizations in the
interest of conservation. An-
other $100,000 is now available
for conservation during the
forthcoming year.
Some of the organizations and
projects aided by funds from
the Sportsmen's Show during
the past 12 months include the
following: Conservation Coun-
cil of Ontario, ($15,000) ; Toron-
to Anglers' and Hunters' Asso-
ciation, ($15,000); Canadian
Forestry Association of On-
tario, ($4,600) ; Maskinonge
Survey, ($3,381) ; Mallard Duck
Banding, ($1,156) ; Cootes Par-
adise Marsh, ($1,150); and In-
sect Research, ($3,000).
Mr. Kortright reported that
plans are well underway for
the Show's tenth anniversary
which will be observed in con-
junction with this big outdoors
and sports extravaganza in
Coliseum, March 15 to 23, 1957.
Ostrich Swallowed
71 Diamonds
_—
Officials at a Chicago zoo
were puzzled recently when an
apparently healthy alligator
died suddenly, They instructed
pathologist to find out why.
He reported that inside the
alligator he had found five mar-
bles, two peach stones, a bi-
cycle's reflector lens, a small
hand torch, a woman's hair
comb, a brooch, an air valve
cap, eleven pieces of broken
bottle and fifty stones. It was
decided that the alligator had
died of stomach trouble.
Zoo ,:reatures sometimes gob-
ble up the oddest things. A
fish at London Zoo during the
war killed itself by eating brok-
en glass after an air raid and in
the stomach of an electric eel
was found a large coil of wire.
A post-mortem on a rattle-
snake which was found dead
one morning showed that it had
swallowed the winding screw of
somebody's wrist -watch,
A few weeks ago a large
number o' coins weighing more
than four pounds and worth
$10 were found in the stomach
of an ostrich which died in the
Buenos Aires zoo. And in the
stomach of a captive ostrich m
South Africa were found seven-
ty-one pure white diamonds,
one of which was over seven
carats. The bird is believed to
have picked them up in the
Kalahari Desert where it was
captured by a hunter,
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MACHINERY
BANKRUPT stock of new Massey -Har-
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FARM IMPLEMENTS
NEW and used Threshers. Lowest
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FOR SALE
GRENFELL Recreation Hall; Billiards
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Glen L. Neill, Grenfell Saskatchewan.
Don't Get Too
Hot and Bothered
We have heard some expres-
sions of annoyance among the
Older Set over the current teen-
age rage, a young hillbilly en-
tertainer named Elvis Presley.
We were about to identify Mr.
Presley more explicitly as a
singer, but out of deference to
sensitive feelings we chose the
less controversial noun.
Elvis puts on a most active
act on TV, contorting his face
and body as though in great
pain, whomping the daylights
out of his defenseless guitar, and
uttering unintelligible shrieks
and groans. The latter manifes-
tations, preserved on phono-
graph records, are selling like
mad.
A good many parents seem
fearful for the future of Am-
erican youth if it can see merit
in Mr. Presley's aggravated as-
saults on the musical idiom. We
would remind such worriers of
their own youth. Don't they re-
call their parents threatening
to smash the loud speaker of
the battery radio if Rudy Val-
lee megaphoned the Maine
Stein Song through it once
again? Or fretting over juven-
ile appreciation for Cab Gal-
loway's scat lyrics? But some-
how the youngsters of yester-
day grew up to be the sensible
citizens of today, and now
Rudy's croonings and Cab's hi-
de -his sound sort of pleasantly
old fashioned.
Brace up, parents of '56. In
another 20 years Elvis Presley
really won't seem so bad, and
your grown-up teen-agers will
be biting their nails over the
entertainment sensation of '76.
—(Portland) Oregonian.
The kings of Peru were. the
Incas.
They were widely known
as big drincas.
They worshipped the sun,
And had lots of fun,
But the peasants all thought
they were stincas.
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PERSONAL
$1.00 TRIAL offer. twenty five deluxe
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TEACHERS WANTED
Male Protestant Principal
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• ti.G ETTE
1SSU 26 -- 1956