England and Egypt 299
fear lest concentration on issues of national sovereignty
may make the Egyptian Government overslow in
necessary concessions to social reform. There is here, in
any case, no condition calling for a protection of foreign
interests from outside.
The other fear that perpetually festers in the mind of
the foreign residents in Egypt is that of losing not only
the protection, but the privileges accorded them by the
Capitulations. Under these legacies of li the Sick Man "
—now happily deceased—there are four distinct judicial
systems operating in Egypt under four different sanctions.
Consular Courts for the penal and personal cases con-
cerning foreigners; Mixed Tribunals for commercial
cases concerning foreigners ; Religious Courts for the
personal status of native Moslems, Jews, and Christians ;
and finally, Egyptian Courts, In some fully nationalised
Eastern States, such as Japan and Turkey, this judicial
extra-territoriality has been already swept away, and in
others, such as China, it is going. In the North African
States the abolition of this extra-territoriality has been
accepted by the Treaty Powers in consideration of the
guarantee for efficient judicatures and equal justice given
by the Occupying Power, France or Italy. A similar
arrangement was pursued by Great Britain as Occupying
Power in Egypt, and was pressed after the declaration
of the Protectorate. But for reasons that have already
been reviewed, our attempts to rid Egypt of the judicial
Capitulations failed. Subsequently, the capitulatory
regime in Egypt, instead of being attacked by the Nation-
alists, as it has been in Turkey and China for being an
intolerable " servitude" on national sovereignty, has
actually come to be accepted as an international safe-
guard against any restoration of British control over
Egyptian internal affairs.