A DANGER SPOT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1150, 10 June 1911, Page 4

A DANGER SPOT.

The exercise of British authority in Egypt is a difficult and delicate task, and one associated with menacing possibilities of serious trouble in the near future. Sir Eldon Gorst in the latest Blue-book on Egypt, to which a London cablegram alluded the other day, does no more than repeat the old, mournful reports with which we have all been so long familiar. So far, he says, as the Legislative Council and General Assembly are concerned, the experiment of admitting Egyptians to a larger share in the administration has proved a failure. Both bodies, it would appear, especially during the first half of 1910, displayed a steady ancl increasing tendency to become mere instruments of Nationalist agitation against the occupation of Egypt. Failure of experiments in the direction of self-govern-, menfc is attributed to the Egyptians and the local European colonics interpreting recent concessions as signs of weakness and tho lessening of British authority. Sie Eldon Gokst succeeded Lord Cromer in April, 1907, and in his first report, issued a year later, he declared his conviction that tho great majority of the upper and middle classes desired no extension of self-govern-ment, admitting, as they did, that the country was not, ripe for it, while the, fellaheen could . not be made to understand what the term meant. His reports for 1909 and 1910 dealt with the Nationalists, reviving of the Press Law, ancl the unconcealed disloyalty of the majorities in the two, so-called, legislative Chambers. Every recent report on Egyptian affairs mentions existing dangers due to agitation against British rule, ancl in language which indicates clearly enough the urgent need for a change in the policy of Great Britain. But nothing is done. Sir Edward Grey, in June last year, seriously warned the Egyptian malcontents, informing them that Britain would not abandon Egypt, and that the agitation against British authority would but lead to a more vigorous assertion of that authority. Not yet, however, has the vigorous assertion been attempted, and the relatively small body of Nationalists has again become clamorous and self-assertive, boldly demanding "Egypt for the Egyptians."

A craze for what is somewhat erroneously designated "Nationalism" is rather prevalent within the British Empire at tho present time. From countries which, without the presence ancl prestige of Great Britain, would be speedily ruined by internal corruption and discord— and probably annexed by a Power less considerate ' than the British— come- demands from sections of the people who aro self-styled Nationalists. Dr. A. J. Butler, writing in a recent Nineteenth Century, states that the prevailing belief in Cairo, when ho was there towards the end of last year, was that the British were preparing to hand over the country to tho Nationalists. He declares that the agents of disloyalty among the Hindus of India, and among the Nationalists in Egypt, as also the extreme Irish Nationalists, are in touch.. Dr. Butler continues: "The aim of the Nationalists is the expulsion of the English from Egypt; and the English policy under the present Government has suffered and encouraged the ascendancy of the Nationalists, till they have come to believe that Britain is half weak, and half willing, and under pressure can be forced to abandon the country." Assuredly Silt Eldon Gorst's record in Egypt has not been brilliant; but to an almost incredible extent his hands have been tied. In the Anglo-French Convention of 1904 the British Government declared that it liad_ no intention of altering the political status of Egypt. This meant that Britain would rule the country by means of ancient, complicated, worn-out machinery of government, similar to what was employed in the days of Tewfik and Ismail. Egyptian methods and ideas arc altogether foreign to English. There is a medley of native courts ancl statutes; civil law ancl ecclesiastical usage arc often in conflict: no fewer than fourteen Consular Courts, each independent and representative of a Power interested in Egypt, have been set up to try foreigners accused of crime, and civil actions between foreigners of the same nationality. Already the Egyptians possess manhood suffrage for the election of delegates, who in turn elect 10 of the SO members of tho Legislative Council. At the latest election exactly 1.1 per cent-, of tho adult male population of Cairo, voted. Nor is this fact surprising when it is remembered that a very large percentage of the population is illiterate. In 1907 only 5.8 per cent, of the inhabitants over seven years of age could read or write. And this is the country that Egyptian Nationalists declare "is ripe'for receiving and enjoying all tho privileges of constitutional freedom,'' A common misconception

is tli.it the Nationalist agitation is a thing of recent growth in Egypt. The truth is that Egyptian Nationalism has been long in existence. Egypt has been governed for something liko twenty-six centuries by foreigners, and history shows that there lias been in the country, nearly always, a more or less apparent movement antagonistic to the ruling dynasty or the suzerain Power. The roll of races and of nations that have been, in succession, masters of Egypt is very long and extremely varied. But against the rulers the Nationalists agitated, not so much for the reason that they were oppressed, as because they merely desired a change of masters. To the Nationalist movement headed by Arabi Pasha is really dito tho British occupation. Arabi's rebellion was against the Turkish Viceroy and his Turkish Court, and, with peculiar irony, was stamped out by Mr. Gladstone, the deadly enemy of tho Turks, and tho warm friend and declared upholder of all Nationalists. Great Britain is in Egypt in the interests of her own, and of European, bondholders, as well as for the benefit of the inhabitants. Her achievements in the development of the country and in the material improvement of the people are great, and will behistoric. They have been in striking contrast to the feeble efforts put forth at Cairo for tho preservation of law and order.