The Dominion. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1911. LORD KITCHENER IN EGYPT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1291, 21 November 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1911. LORD KITCHENER IN EGYPT.

Lord Kitchener, according to a writer in the September Fortnightly Review, holds the opinion that the Mediterranean will be the. centre of the next great outbreak of hostilities. There have been rumours of late that he desired to be Britain's representative either at the Sublime Porte, or in Cairo. Sib Eldon Gokst's early demise has given him the opportunity to once more play a great .part on the Kile—an opportunity of which he may be relied upon to take full advantage. Loud Kitchener ranks among the comparatively few who know Egypt and the Egyptians thoroughly, the soldier and the official classjs, as well as the general population. _ The mass of Egyptians have had impressed upon their minds • the knowledge of the great Sirdar's inflexible will, his immense military capacity and, above all, his stern resolve that justice shall be dpne alike to rich and to poor. His reception by the people, tho cable messages informed us, was marked by extraordinary enthusiasm. We would have been disappointed had it been otherwise. Lokd Kitchener's reputation insured him a very _ warm welcome from the vast majority of Egyptians; that reputation almost alone, we are convinccd, would have introduced somethingvery like a new era within the territories of tho Khedive. Lord Cromer's once firm hold was displaying signs of relaxing by the time ho retired. Then the situation in Egypt was undoubtedly grave and. Lokd Cromer realised that his .health was unable to stand the over-increasing strain cast upon it by a succession of crises. Sir Eldon Gorst was a somewhat unusual and a decidedly contradictory personality. Ho went to Egypt in 1886 as Secretary at the British Agency and twelve years afterwards bccamc Financial Adviser, the most important position in the Egyptian Government open to Englishmen. In j-hc various intermediate offices lie held Sir ]»,Lpox Gorst showed rcmarkablo abilities, Lord Cromeii considering him to be "endowed with a singular degree of tact and intelligence.' When the way was being prepared for the entente cord talc with France, to Sir Ei.don Goust was_ entrusted the diplomatic negotiations between France and England with regard to Egypt, negotiations which were described as amazingly sttcccssful." Sn: Eldon Gorst, perfectly cognisant though he was of Egyptian manners and customs, doggedly pursued his own methods _o[> self-effacement and refused to display a shred of that discreet ostentation which seems essential to the prestige of all high •officers of State in the Easl. Until probably his .last months a.t Cairo he. made little favourable impression on the public mind. Britain's second Pro-Consul, after his appointment, arrived at Cairo, we read, "without pomp or ceremony.'' The Fortnii/fitli/ Jirricir writer, already mentioned, thus describes Stu Eldo.n* Gorst ns Great Britain's representative in Egypt: "He was a small, ill-dressed, spectacled man of sonio forty-six years, v.illi a determined, but not distinguished, bearing. ft was already known, and soon observed again, that he disliked notor-

icly. He wa.lbd on foot through the streets uf Cairo, jostled by the. natnes; or, bare-headed and sometimes Collarle.ss, he rode his pony amidst, the _ noisy Ira Hie. At times he avove his own small niol-or-car; Ufld, in the absence of a chauffeur, shouted to the pedestrians in the vernacular to warn them from his rmUt.'; The public appearances of Britain's representative were thus marked by no excess of dignity. A 1 question will, doubtless, occur to many: bow much of the disrespect displayed towards the British Con-sul-General personally, and hatred of the British occupation, was directly due to Sin Ei,don- Goust's mistaken modesty, and his departure from the ceremonious and dignified style usually followed by the representatives of the Empire and the Sovereign '! Sir Ei.dox Goiikt was eminently able, but his methods were those of the diplomat whose functions are confined to the Cabinet and the audience-chamber. When he died those methods were beginning to_ affect, in a salutary way, the official life of Egypt. In time, had he remained British Agent, official life would have been purified, the administration of all Departments raised perceptibly nearer to British standards. But the process would have beenslow, and might have been at any time interrupted by some colossal catastrophe. Lord Kitchener's predecessor must be taken into account to fully appreciate the present rapidlychanging conditions within Egypt. The native press will think "twice before it offers to Lord Kitchener the insults it heaped on "the diplomat with democratic tendencies," as someone named Sir Eldox Gorst. "If _wc are to be ruled/' writes the Nationalist El'-Alam, "let us be ruled by a manly man. Lord Kitchener's appointment should bo wclcomc, since he is so well known to us. His justice to the army is proverbial, and Egypt is hungry for justice." Egypt's problems arc few: they arc stated and arc easily capable of solution. Bribery on the one hand, and robbery of the helpless fellahin on the other, were too often the chief characteristics of Egyptian rule in the past. The native population of the country consists of about eleven million peasants, or fellahin, and a few thousand more or less educated persons, the effendiat. The latter class wears European dress and copies the manners of the _ French and the English. From it comes the native officials who despise the peasants, and even yet, it is feared, extort from them considerable illegal tribute. It has been the task of the English to protect the fellahin against the unscrupulous effendiat. The Nationalist movement is confined to the educated Mohammedans, the Egyptian _ aristocracy. Beccntly, when certain Labour members from the British Parliament went to Egypt to assist in securing self-government "for_ the Egyptians," they provided the illuminating spectacle of supporting the thousands of "idle rich," against the millions of, in reality, industrious poor. The fellahin, and a second section of the educated class, the Copts or Christians, favour the British occupation. Small as the numlicrs of the effendiat are _ there is thus already a serious rift betwean its two divisions, the Mohammedans and Christians. Lord Kitchener, it is reported, will carry out in the main the policy of Sir Eldon Gorst. This is likely to be true; but it will be with a difference. Diplomacy will no longer be the substitute for government. The Public Service will be more rapidly purified: the fellahin more effectively protected .from the. effendiat. Further, Nationalists and other malcontents will probably act with extreme circumspection in the presence of the new British Agent.