AN HOUR WITH LORD KITCHENER

Press, Volume L, Issue 14974, 22 May 1914, Page 8

AN HOUR WITH LORD KITCHENER

«A WONDERFUL PICTURE." (By the Cairo Correspondent of the v * "Daily Mail.") When the tiain for Cairo had drawn out of Port Said and clear of the Canal I prepared myself for dust and discomfort and dreary vistas of sand raying back the sunlight till the eyes shrank from its glare So it had seemed to mc ten years beforo, so I expected to find it now. But the desert has vanished. In its placo there lies a green plain, rich, fertile, thickly immeasurably picturesque. Gleaming and beautnul it stretches away on either side. Biuerobed Arabs, perched on the extreme aud perilous enas of donkeys, trot a.ong the banks of the canals. Here and there a white sad and curved mast break the vista of the green fields, -allies, cauic, auu aio e»'eiywnuro women ana Cu.iaiui acteaunig them \ Oiown and duty oaDe, siiuouet- ' . Ha* we ».."i oi .1 ii.ui-cut crop, auoulTumi waves as uio uam goes oy. *.iiu we paos iei-ei-iveoii- aim * ceniotcrv ioj- reiiieiiiuraiico' saKe. In tuo si i 'e/«uiKg gtow tue train pounds mterinmuoiy a.o.ig tiuougu a panoiaaiu tnat seeu'is liioaca.iy aueienb auu uuaiwrabio. It 16 wcieciitiie tnat so lew ve'irs nave passed since war ragea auu l.w wove oi i-cace taut loilowt-u it began.

(By the Cairo Correspondent of the

! xh'e representative of the Providence that is Uius renuiKing Has its sear, in Lairo. I'irst ns uanie was Cromer, tiien Gorst—an umortunateProvidence tnat—and now Kitcneuer. I had a groat desire to penetrate to tne source oi tiiis beneficent power that is changing tne face of tne land ironi the Nile inoutns to Central Atnca, making, the desert to blossom, giving justice and satctv to a people broken by centuries of misrule ana oppression onngimr. to the hind of the Pharaohs the clean aim orderly ideals oi an upstart civilisation. . . The-British Agency in Cairo is a large, low building, hi east-deep in ioliage, upon tho banK of tne Nile. I hero is no <'icat ceremony at the palace ol the Bntish Pharaoh. There is a sentry at tho gato, and a couple ot stalwart Egyptians in a red livery adorned with .T o ; a braid wait by the door under the portico. You go up steps into a hig.i, cool hall. A wide doorway leads to a big verandah, with ringdoves cooin-: in a cage. A curving lawn, with flowering trees and shrubs, is bounded by a parapet above the brown waters of the Nile. On the further bank a line of tall palms trembles in tho wind and shimmers in the sun. You turn back into the shadows of tho houso, down a passage to tho right, in at the first door, on tho left, and you are in the presence of El Lord. If you have travelled enough to observe that much ceremony generally accompanies much sunshine, you will find the pre-sence-chamber prosaic. It is a big, dimly-lit room, with a large desk in the middle. A tall and heavy man, with what artists call a "grand head," rises from the desk, grasps you firmly by tho hand, and waves you to a capacious armchair. You find yourself faciug jwhat light there is. Your host's features ai'e in shadow.

He is no longer the youthful organiser of victory, with tho heavy moustache and the strong blue eyes, whom we idolised as schoolboys. Ho has changed even since 1 saw him in tho Council Chamber at Calcutta, stern and forbidding sit the right hand of a pink-faced Viceroy. His hair is grey, his "expression and manner softer, but his eyes are as keen and piercing as in the days of the Alahdi. His conversation is extraordinarily fascinating. The deep, confident, deliberate voice bears you up and down the vast length of his dominions. With a sober and controlled enthusiasm he speaks of the great works he has in, hand. Far down in the- south beyond Khartum he jdans a dam which will bring greater help to Egypt even than that of Assuan. Putting aside a cigar, that has gone out, Tie shows roughly upon his desk how from the mountains* of Central Africa he will draw, moro water for the use of tho fellaheen. Perhaps the completion of the project must- wait a little for tho growth of revenue. "A loan?" he says. • "No, we want no middlemen. Wbv should these people"—with a-wave of his hand over the brown millions outside —"pay thoir profits? Wo want every penny of the profits* for ourselves." Tho new dam will bring under cultivation huge areas of barren land, will benefit the Sudan and Egypt alike. "But we'll have nothing sensational," ho says; "nothing startling. Steady, and sure development is what we seek." One remembers those almost daily telegrams when the railway crept south. "Railhead is now at such-and-such a Elace," tbey ran. "To-morrow it will eat so-and-so." And it always was so, with a monotonous regularity that' made us gasp at home.

He mentions with a certain quiet pleasure that the Assuan dam paid for its whole cost of construction in a few months recently, when the Nilo was at the lowest level ever known.

He turns from tiio problem of gotting water at one end of his dominions to the problem of getting rid of it at the other. In the Delta are waste marshes fit for reclamation. They are to be drained and cultivated. "Not a pump has worked yet, but the mere laying of the dams has shown what the land can do. Fine soil, they tell mc, fit for any use." He contemplates for a moment this new scene in the drama of the wilderness that blossoms like tho rose.

A passing reference is mado to the famoos Five-Feddan law, by wliich tno cultivator's land and implements can m no circumstances be wrested from him against his will. "They saio.—a few peoplo who disapproved of it —that the law would be unpopular. Was it so? I tested that. You know the,custom of the country—tho habit of petitioning? If one man pokes a stick in anotner man's eye thero are almost sure to be petitions to the Government. I sent for tho Minister of the Interior and said to him, 'Let mc see the petitions against the Five-Feddan law.' His answer was, There is not oner' Not one!" ho ends, striking his desk, and showing a touch of 6ober scorn for the prophets of evil who were confounded.

Educated Egyptians of good standing .had spoken to mc of tho gratification they folt at Lord Kitchener's friendliness and courtesy to the people of the country. They had contrasted it with what they called Lord Cromer's rather Imperial alootness, and Sir Eldon Gorst's too commonplace kindnesses. This had been a surprise to mc in view of Lord Kitchener's reputation of old as something of a military autocrat. I tried to convey a vague suggestion of this, and Lord Kitchener answered in words which form a very excellent axiom of statecraft: '"You cannot run a country as you run an army."

• • • ■ . We talked of things nearer home than Egypt, but in these Lord Kitchener is rightly careful to take no public part whatever. It struck mc as a rather wonderful picture—this ot the man who broke the Mahdi nursing the Mahdi's unhappy subjects; of the man wh >so life has been given to armies now absorbed in tho betterment of a people who love him, turning the skill and wisdom gained in war to the t'ur-

them nee of peace and progress. lou netxl to go to Egypt to realise the greatness of the work he has done and the work he means to do. Strong, skilful, sclf-controlbd, and courtetm*. witn tho large aims of the constructive genius and the business- man's eyo to the balance-sheet, he is tho ideal ruler of Egypt. His last words to mc were: I will not go from Egypt before I must." And however soro our need or India's may be. it will bo a bad day for Egypt when El Lord vacates that dim-lit room on the bank of the r.unny Nile.