Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/372

 364] FOREIGN HISTORY. [1899.

the Nakan Nayoke River, and he had a scheme for constructing more than 500 miles of additional railways as soon as the rev- enue of the country would permit. The Government decided in August not to raise at present a foreign loan, but the survey of the Ching-mai Railway was to be commenced by the Royal Railway Department.

The long-standing boundary dispute of Perak with Siam was adjusted in December.

Siam claimed the immediate retrocession of Chantaboon, but France insisted that by the treaty of 1893 this was conditional on the settlement of all pending questions.

The ships belonging to the Scottish Oriental Line running to Bangkok were sold m December to a German company, and the shipping of that port is now mainly in German hands.

CHAPTER VI.

AFRICA. EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

The year 1899 was once again a year of uneventful progress in Egypt, and of active and victorious progress in the Soudan. The improved relations of the Khedive with his English advisers and the adoption of a less hostile and irritating attitude by the representatives of French interests in the country helped to steady Egyptian feeling and to facilitate reform. The as- sent given by the General Assembly to an important proposal submitted by the Government for the reassessment of land throughout the country was a welcome contrast to the factious opposition to Government proposals offered by the Assembly in earlier days. The bitterness of the anti-English

Eress diminished. The prosperity of the country, as evidenced y the growing success of the cotton industry in particular, continued to increase, and even the serious deficiency of water caused by the failure of the Nile flood — which, owing no doubt to the new irrigation system, was the lowest ever recorded — failed on this point to diminish the satisfactory returns. This deficiency did, however, seriously affect the area of cultivation, and the prospects of the rice and cereal crops, and consequently provision for a decrease of revenue on these heads was made in the Budget for 1900, which was submitted to the Council of Ministers towards the close of the year. On the other hand, in view of these difficulties, the Budget Estimates were of a very satisfactory kind. In spite of the loss of 250,000/. of land tax, due to the large area of land which it was impossible to irri- gate, and of a diminution of 100,000/. in railway receipts, an equilibrium was established between the receipts and the expen-