APPENDIX.
No. II.
FIRMAN OF CONCESSION.
FIRMAN OF CONCESSION.
Our friend Mons. Ferdinand de Lesseps, having called our attention to the advantages which would result to Egypt from the junction of the Mediterranean and Red Seas, by a navigable passage for large vessels, and having given us to understand the possibility of forming a company for this purpose composed of capitalists of all nations; we have accepted the arrangements which he has submitted to us, and by these presents grant him exclusive power for the establishment and direction of a Universal Company, for cutting through the Isthmus of Suez, and the construction of a canal between the two Seas, with authority to undertake or cause to be undertaken all the necessary works and erections, on condition that the Company shall previously indemnify all private persons in case of dispossession for the public benefit. And all within the limits, upon the conditions and under the responsibilities, settled in the following Articles.
Article I.
Mons. Ferdinand de Lesseps shall form a company, the direction of which we confide to him, under the name of the Universal Suez Maritime Canal Company, for cutting through the Isthmus of Suez, the construction of a passage suitable for extensive navigation, the foundation or appropriation of two sufficient entrances, one from the Mediterranean and the other from the Red Sea, and the establishment of one or two ports.
Article II.
The Director of the Company shall be always appointed by the Egyptian Government, and selected, as far as practicable, from the shareholders most interested in the undertaking.