Suez Canal

De Lesseps, 1854.

The society was in a state of suspended animation when in 1854 Ferdinand de Lesseps came to the front as the chief exponent of the idea. He had been associated with the Saint Simonists. His opportunity came in 1854 when, on the death of Abbas Pasha, his friend Said Pasha became viceroy of Egypt. From Said on Nov. 3o, 1854, he obtained a concession authorizing him to constitute the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez, which should construct a ship canal through the isthmus, and soon afterwards in concert with two French engi neers, Linant Bey and Mougel Bey, he decided that the canal should run in a direct line from Suez to the Gulf of Pelusium, passing through the depressions that are now Lake Timsa and the Bitter lakes, and skirting the eastern edge of Lake Menzala. In the following year an international commission appointed by the viceroy approved this plan with slight modifications, the chief being that the channel was taken through Lake Menzala instead of along its edge, and the northern termination of the canal moved some i71m. westward where deep water was found closer to the shore. This plan, according to which there were to be no locks, was the one ultimately carried out, and it was embodied in a sec ond and amplified concession, dated Jan. 5, 1856, which laid on the company the obligation of constructing, in addition to the mari time canal, a fresh-water canal from the Nile near Cairo to Lake Timsa, with branches running parallel to the maritime canal, one to Suez and the other to Pelusium. The concession was to last for 99 years from the date of the opening of the canal between the Red sea and the Mediterranean, after which, in default of other arrangements, the canal passes into the hands of the Egyptian Government. The confirmation of the sultan of Turkey being required, de Lesseps went to Constantinople to secure it, but found himself baffled by British diplomacy; and later in London he was informed by Lord Palmerston that in the opinion of the British Government the canal was a physical impossibility, that if it were made it would injure British maritime supremacy, and that the proposal meant French interference in the East.

Although the sultan's confirmation of the concession was not actually granted till 1866, de Lesseps in 1858 opened the sub scription lists for his company, the capital of which was 200 million francs in 400,00o shares of 500 francs each. In less than a month shares were applied for; of these over 200,000 was subscribed in France and over 96,00o were taken by the Ottoman empire. From other countries the subscriptions were trifling, and England, Austria and Russia, as well as the United States of America, held entirely aloof. The residue of 85,506 shares was taken over by the viceroy. (These formed part of the 176,602 shares which were bought for the sum of £3,976,582 from the khedive by England in 1875 at the instance of Lord Beacons field [q.v.].) On April 25, 1859, the work of construction was for mally begun, the first spadeful of sand being turned near the site of Port Said, but progress was not very rapid. By the beginning of 1862 the fresh-water canal had reached Lake Timsa, and towards the end of the same year a narrow channel had been formed between that lake and the Mediterranean. In 1863 the fresh-water canal was continued to Suez.

Forced Labour.—So far the work had been performed by native labour; the concession of 1856 contained a provision that at least four-fifths of the labourers should be Egyptians, and later in the same year Said Pasha undertook to supply labourers as required by the engineers of the canal company, which was to house and feed them and pay them at stipulated rates. Although

the wages and the terms of service were better than the men ob tained normally, this system of forced labour was strongly disap proved of in England, and the khedive Ismail who succeeded Said on the latter's death in 1863 also considered it as being contrary to the interests of his country. Hence in July the Egyptian for eign minister, Nubar Pasha, was sent to Constantinople with the proposal that the number of labourers furnished to the company should be reduced, and that it should be made to hand back to the Egyptian Government the lands that had been granted it by Said in 1856. These propositions were approved by the sultan and the company was informed that if they were not accepted the works would be stopped by force. Naturally the company ob jected, and in the end the various matters in dispute were referred to the arbitration of the emperor Napoleon III. By his award, made in July 1864, the company was allowed 38 million francs as an indemnity for the abolition of the corvee, 16 million francs in respect of its retrocessions of that portion of the fresh-water canal that lay between Wadi, Lake Timsa and Suez (the remainder had already been handed back by agreement), and 36 million francs in respect of the lands which had been granted it by Said. The company was allowed to retain a certain amount of land along the canals, which was necessary for purposes of con struction, erection of workshops, etc., and it was put under the obligation of finishing the fresh-water canal between Wadi and Suez to such dimensions that the depth of water in it would be 21 metres at high Nile and at least i metre at low Nile. The supply of Port Said with water it was allowed to manage by any means it chose ; in the first instance it laid a double line of iron piping from Timsa, and it was not till 1885 that the original plan of supplying the town by a branch' of the fresh-water canal was carried out. The indemnity, amounting to a total of 84 million francs, was to be paid in instalments spread over 15 years.

The abolition of forced labour was probably the salvation of the enterprise, for it meant the introduction of mechanical appli ances and of modern engineering methods. The work was divided into four contracts. The first was for the supply of 250,000 cubic metres of concrete blocks for the jetties of Port Said ; the second, for the first 6o kilometres of the channel from Port Said, involved the removal of 22 million cubic metres of sand or mud; the third was for the next length of 13 kilometres, which included the cut ting through the high ground at El Gisr; and the fourth and larg est was for the portion between Lake Timsa and the Red sea. The contractors for this last section were Paul Sorel and Alex andre Levalley, who ultimately became responsible also for the second or 6o kilometres contract. For the most part the material was soft and therefore readily removed. At some points, however, as at Shaluf and Serapeum, rock was encountered. Much of the channel was formed by means of dredgers. At Serapeum, a pre liminary shallow channel having been dug out, water was admitted from the fresh-water canal, the level of which is higher than that of the ship canal, and the work was completed by dredgers from a level of about loft. above the sea.