While working at the hospital, Simaika read a newspaper advertisement for a vacancy as a translator in the Engineering Department of the Egyptian State Railways. He sat for the examination, passed it successfully, and was asked to join the service. When he informed Lady Strangford of this, she was angry, but Simaika explained that this was a permanent post while his present job was for only four months, and that he had applied without previous permission from her as he did not know if he would pass the examination. She then asked him to take a letter to the chairman of the Railway Board, asking him to keep the post for him until her departure. On presenting this letter to the chairman, Mr. Lemesurier, the latter said it was a wonderful recommendation in Simaika’s favor. He asked Simaika to present his compliments to Lady Strangford and tell her the post would be reserved for him for as long as was convenient for her.
I was overjoyed for she wanted me to spend most of the time visiting the mosques, the churches and other monuments of Cairo and its environs, and of course I studied all I could about them so as to give her the necessary explanations. Thus I spent some of the most pleasant months of my life in the company of that highly accomplished lady who finally left Egypt in December 1882.15
The Egyptian State Railways was the first railway system in the Ottoman Empire, Africa, and the Middle East. In 1833, Muhammad Ali Pasha had considered a railway between Suez and Cairo after consultation with Gallway, his Scottish chief engineer, to improve transit between Europe and India. He proceeded to buy the rail, but the project was abandoned due to pressure from the French, who had an interest in building a canal instead. The pasha’s successor and grandson, Abbas Hilmi I, contracted Robert Stephenson to build Egypt’s first standard gauge railway. Stephenson, the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer, accepted the post of engineer in chief to the planned Egyptian railway between Alexandria and Cairo.
The first section built extended from Alexandria to Kafr al-Zayyat on the Rosetta line and was inaugurated in 1854, followed by the Kafr al-Zayyat-to-Cairo section in 1856. An extension from Cairo to Suez was built in 1858, thus completing the first modern transport link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal not being completed until 1869. It was Isma‘il Pasha who vastly expanded the railroad building project that saw Egypt and Sudan gain the distinction of having the most railways per habitable kilometer of any nation in the world. The euphoria surrounding the inauguration of the Egyptian railways was marred only by a tragic event on May 15, 1858, when a special train conveying Said Pasha’s son and heir presumptive, Ahmad Pasha Rifaat, fell off a car float into the Nile and the prince drowned.
In February 1883, two months after joining the Egyptian State Railways at the age of nineteen, Simaika sat for another public examination for a higher post in the Accounts Department. When the result was announced, his name appeared at the head of the successful candidates. From accounts he was soon transferred to the Purchasing and Contracts Office, which was not en odeur de sainteté,16 as Simaika recounts in his memoirs. The chief of that department was a Mr. Baines, who was not trusted by his colleagues but who had the full confidence of the chairman. Mr. Lemesurier at that time was confined to bed with gout and was soon to be replaced by Halton Pasha, the postmaster general, a man of great energy. In the Purchasing and Contracts Office, Simaika had with him a Copt, Girgis Asfour, who was a drunkard, an Indian who was consumptive, and two junior clerks, an Egyptian and an Austrian. As Girgis Asfour was often the worse for drink, the work was neglected for lack of supervision. Being young and active and anxious to learn, Simaika shouldered all the work the others neglected, and often remained at his desk for two hours after the other clerks had left, studying every file carefully. As a result, in a short space of time he had mastered the work at the office thoroughly.
Soon after his appointment, Halton Pasha took over the personal supervision of the Purchasing and Contracts Office, Baines was pensioned off, and M. Imblon, a Frenchman who knew nothing of the work, was appointed to replace him. With a second in command who was new to the job, a drunkard, and a consumptive in the office, Halton Pasha was delighted with Simaika, upon whom he could rely and who knew all the details of the work. From then on, Simaika worked directly with Halton, and in 1888, was made chief of the Purchasing and Contracts Office. At that time Halton’s private secretary, Mr. G.D. Wallich, applied for leave of absence and Halton entrusted Simaika with Wallich’s duties in addition to his own. This meant an enormous amount of extra work, for at that time a commission composed of two railway experts, Lord Farrar and Major Marinden, had been invited by the Egyptian government to investigate the condition of the Egyptian railways. Their goal was to provide recommendations to repair both the railway line and the rolling stock, which had been much neglected in the past. This commission asked for information on all branches of the railways administration, and it fell to Simaika to obtain most of the data and collect all the necessary statistics. To do this he worked closely with Halton Pasha every day until late into the night.
Soon after, Halton appointed Simaika his secretary and asked him to propose someone to replace him as chief of the Purchasing and Contracts Office. Simaika suggested Habashi Muftah, an honest man of inflexible rectitude, and promised to help him out. This proposal was accepted, and in 1890 Simaika became secretary to the chairman of the board. In 1893, Simaika was promoted to the post of secretary of the Traffic Department under Scandar Pasha Fahmi, in addition to his position as secretary to the chairman.
Simaika’s career at the Egyptian State Railways was marked with considerable success, but his young age, diligence, and personal integrity often made him resented by those less qualified and less straightforward. In his memoirs, Simaika recounts several incidents in which he fell prey to machinations by colleagues and superiors who begrudged his accomplishments.
In 1895, Simaika was promoted to inspector general of accounts, a post previously always held by a European, and never by an Egyptian. In this position, he was provided with a service coach that could be attached to trains, enabling him to arrive unexpectedly at any destination, thus ensuring efficient inspection and supervision. During these unannounced visits, he uncovered large-scale abuse and theft, with various railway stations being supplied with large quantities of stores far exceeding their requirements. Due to lack of proper inspection and a two-year delay of the annual audit, corruption was rampant. The amount collected for a consignment of goods would be entered in full on the foil given as a receipt to the sender, and then reduced on the one sent to the Audit Department to two-thirds or half the amount, depending on the greed of the clerk.
To put an end to these abuses, Simaika introduced the use of carbon paper in the face of great opposition, especially from the traffic manager and the chief of audit. But with the full support of the members of the board, his suggestions were approved and put into practice. These measures resulted in diminution of fraud and a notable increase in revenue. As a result, the board appointed him deputy chief of audit in addition to his functions as inspector general of accounts. On assuming this office, the first order he gave was that all clerks at the Audit Department would devote the morning hours to current work and return in the afternoons to deal with the arrears. This proved very unpopular with the clerks, but Simaika made sure to set an example by arriving at work half an hour early in the morning and remaining at his desk until ten o’clock in the evening.
To mark the appreciation of the board, its Egyptian member, Boghos Pasha Nubar, son of Nubar Pasha, sent for Simaika and told him that the board had decided to promote him to the post of chief of audit in addition to that of inspector general of accounts. Simaika immediately replied,
Allow me, in thanking you for this new mark of confidence, to say that the present chief, Antoun Bey el Saheb, has to his credit thirty-nine years of service and only wants one more year to be entitled to a full pension. If dismissed now, he will only get two-thirds of his pay. I am young and not impatient for promotion, and in order not to cause prejudice to a colleague I can well afford to wait another year or two.17
Thereupon, Boghos Pasha rose from his chair and shook Simaika’s hand, saying, “These feelings do you great honour and raise you higher in our esteem.”18
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