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Inclosure in No. 3.

Draft for a Soudan Charter.

IIIS Imperial Majesty Abdul Hamid shall grant to a body, to be hereinafter called the Company, and which shall be constituted according to the laws of the Turkish Empire, the following rights and privileges in that part of His Imperial Majesty's African dominions generally known as the Egyptian Soudan, and which is roughly composed of all the Nile Valley south of Wady Halfa, the country lying between the Upper Nile, the frontiers of Abyssinia, and the Red Sea, and comprises the Provinces and Governments of Suakin, Dongola, Darfour, Bhar-el-Ghazal, Khor- dofan, Khartoum, Kassala, and the Equator for a period of fifty years, and in return the said Company undertakes to do and carry out the several things and obligations hereinunder set out.

N.B.-The Khedive's approval under Firmans relative to succession and Treaties of 1841 must be given here.

1. The said Company, provided always that its action shall be in no way preju- dicial or inimical to the prosperity and integrity of the Turkish Empire, shall be empowered, in the above-mentioned portion of the Sultan's dominions, to act in all ways as if the sovereignty of the said provinces was vested in it, save and except in so far as those powers shall be limited in the following clauses.

(a.) The Company shall have power to issue notes and coin.

(b.) The Company shall have power to raise loans secured on the revenues of the said provinces for the purposes of pacification, improvement of communication by land and water, civil and military government, and other proper and necessary objects incidental to the proper government of, and the revival and development of trade in, the said provinces.

(e.) The Company shall have the power to grant Commissions, civil and mili. tary, and appoint Governors, Judges, and other officials, as it may find and deem

necessary.

(d.) The Company shall have the power of life and death, and supreme civil and military power in the said provinces.

(e.) The Company shall have power to make Laws and Regulations applicable to the said provinces.

(7.) The Company may impose such taxes, direct or indireet, as may be necessary to defray the cost of Government, and other charges incidental to their assumption of authority, including interest on loans, share capital (and payment to the Porte of a contribution to her exchequer to be hereinafter defined ).

(9.) All the roads, railways, steamers, telegraphs, and other means of communi- cation shall be the property of the Company, to be dealt with by them as they shall deem best for the benefit of the country, Her Majesty's Government, the Sublime Porte, and the members of the Company.

(h.) The Company shall have power to levy naval, military, and police forces, to be employed as may be found necessary.

(i) The Company shall have power to make and conclude Treaties, subject to the approval of Her Majesty's Government.

(j.) All mines, minerals, forests, rivers, and water-courses to be the property of the Company.

(k.) All lands, except where private rights of ownership exist, to be the property of the Company.

(7.) The Company to have the right to the monopoly of trade in ivory, and such other articles as may be found necessary.

(m.) The Company to have the power of removing from the territories subject to its jurisdiction all or any persons whose presence there may be deemed detrimental to flæir interests.

t.) The Company to have the power of preventing any person from entering into or residing in the territories subject to their jurisdiction without reason assigned.

(6.) The Company and the officers appointed by it to have the power of inflicting snek punishments as are legal under the laws of the Turkish Empire, or may be rendered legal by the laws and regulations of the Company.

(p.) The Company shall have the power to raise a share capital of 10,000,000!, (9.) The forces, military or otherwise, of the Company shall not on any pretext be employed outside the territories subject to the jurisdiction of the Company, save and

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