THE SUEZ CANAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 5, 17 October 1940, Page 7

THE SUEZ CANAL.

FRANCE NOW WITHOUT A SAY. BUT STAFF RETAINED. One of the many awkward problems that arose from the. collapse and defection of France was the control of the Suez Canal, which, while 'an international waterway, has been virtually the property of a wealthy and powerful French company since its opening 71 years ago. Ignoring Mussolini’s claims (now left to the arbitrage of war), the canal has been the concern of three countries, France, Egypt and Britain. France engineered and built it, and holds the. bulk of the shares. She has a clear majority on the board of directors of the company that holds the concession, provides the registered headquarters, and nearly all the administrative staff. 1

Egypt owns the territory and the canal has to he handed over to her in 1968 in good condition in return for •compensation still to be determined. Britain, who is responsible for the defence of the. canal, provides the bulk of the' traffic, holcis a large proportion of the shares, and nominates ten directors.

For the time being, however, the French-controlled board of directors ceases to have any say in the running of the .canal, and Britain and Egypt have assumed full responsibility. Meetings of the board are now ill abeyance. There are 32 directors — 19 French, ten British, two Egyptian and one Dutch, each receiving between £'3ooo and £SOOO a year plus generous expenses for their services. Since the fall of Paris and the surrender of France, the British directors—three representing the Government and seven the shipping companies have been unable to get. into touch with their French colleagues, and have no idea how they will line up under Petain’s Government, though the views of General Weygand, a comparative newcomer to the board, are well enough known now. Most of the others are believed to bo intensely pro-British, including M. Edgar Bonnet (a Knight of the Order of the British Empire), one of the vice-presidents and father of M. George Edgar Bonnet, general manager of the company.

Pro-British sentiments may not be allowed to count for much in the new France and there is a certain amount of anxiety that outside efforts may be made, to lay claim to assets and reserves of the company held in Paris, which amount to some millions of pounds. The only recent pronouncement of the company is that the payment of dividends has been suspended, but this was only to be expected when war restrictions on trade and the closing of the Mediterranean have reduced traffic through the canal to a fraction of its previous volume. No share quotations have been recorded since .Italy’s entry into the war gave the final blow to traffic via Suez. For the first time in the 71 years that have elapsed since de. Lesseps achieved his engineering triumph France and Paris have practically no say in the control of the canal. The British Navy, other armed forces, and the Egyptian Government are in possession on the spot, and the two Governments have reached a financial arrangement, guaranteed by London and short-circuiting Paris under which the administrative staff (nearly all French) will continue to be paid and. the effective working of the waterway maintained as effectively as war permits.