The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY. FEB. 18th, 1925. EGYPTIAN PROBLEM.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 February 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY. FEB. 18th, 1925. EGYPTIAN PROBLEM.

A " HM.-K.VnwK Spc< i;ll vorrCßpoudcul (if an English pa| kt, (;. Wind Price writing from Cairo says that what makes the Egyptian problem difficult is that in its fundamentals it i,s so simple. Had that fact not been latterly lest sight ol it would never have heroine a problem at all. We are floundering tmid complexities of our own creation. We have said things that “we must not go hack on”; we have created precedents that “must he respected”; we have set up lath-and-plaster institutions and called them granite c:> long that we should look foolish if we recognised the cracks. The simple essence of the Egyptian situation is that the Egyptians would' love to he entirely and gloriously independent. So would every' nursery and classroom in the world. Fortunately for the peace of our homes and efficiency of schools there are certain appointed persons, of mature experienic and temperate authority, who curl) the ill-directed ardour of youth with wise monitions anil occasional spanking. The British Empire—on the whole the best governed part of the earth’s surface—.has until lately been largely administered on a similar system. But influenza was not the only epidemic that followed on the (ireat War. A lot of dangerous political microbes also broke loose and flew about the world. Of these the bacillus of self-determination has since done more ‘harm than any previous war had wrought. Interpreted by halfbaked minds, the principle of self-ad-ministration prescribes the right of any

community, however immature, to make a mess of its own affairs, regardless of the harm it may cause to itself, its neighbours, and civilisation in doing. No one has yet been found to champion the application of this theory to lunatic asylums and (oiivict prisons, because these are concrete cases that even stay-at home politicians can understand. But in mist European countries are large bodies of political opinion incapable of recognising that among States, as among individuals. there are various degrees of capacity for self-government. Such people use a single test: Does the country in question possess anything called a Parliament? If so, it should have com-

plete autonomy and he admitted to the League of Nations. It would he just as sensible to mane every man who owned a pair of trousers, a member of the House, of Commons, even though he knew so little about the proper use of trousers as to wear them hack to front. The blunder of our Egyptian policy lies in the fact that we put Egypt into trousers too soon. In domestic life that mistake leads often to similar situations of difficulty. It seems to -preclude the parent from using his old rights of salutary control and correction. At the same time

lie cannot allow a prematurely grown-

up young man to harm both himself and the home circle by his rash conduct. A family where such conditions prevail soon becomes an intolerable place. It is'disgust at the stupidity of the v. hole situation which is driving out of Egypt the remnant of the British officials who have built up the whole country during the past 40 years. Directly Egypt became independent most of them were got rid of; the rest have now insisted on going even before the Egyptian Government wants them to. I have talked with many of these men in all departments of Egyptian administration—railways, finance, agriculture, education, public health. Hardly one of them hut is counting the days to when he may shake the dust of Egypt from Ids feet, What sickens them is not tiie fear pf assassination—though

they have seen two dozen of their fellow-countrymen murdered by Egyptians in recent years—but nausea at watching good work spoiled. It is only two and a half years since Egypt was given complete control of her internal affairs. Yet in every public department inefficiency, favouritism, slackness and graft are already established. The vocal fraction of the Egyptian nation—the people who address manifestoes to the League of Nations and write biumirig private letters to Mr Ramsay MacDonald—arc the particular individuals who benefit from this state of things. They get soft jobs, while the ignorant, inert mass of tlieir fellow-countrymen got bad government. Very quickly Egypt is slipping back into the injustice, ineffectiveness, and corruption from which the British occupation raised her. No one will benefit from that—least of all the unfortunate Egyptians themselves —but the glorious principle of self-determi-nation, dear to the heart of pundits in the British Liberal and Labour Parties, will have been saved. To a nation accustomed since the first chapter of history to live under despotic authority we have done great harm by feeding it with the strong meat of independence. As with most Oriental peoples, autocracy, not autonomy, is the form of government that would here bring the greatest good to the greatest number. So long as their ruler is strong it does not matter it ho makes mistakes. Lord Kitchener made many when he was Egypt’s tutor, but no one could deny that 95 per cent, of the Egyptians were better off under his regime than they are to-day. " litre is no country in the which we could less afford to abandon to its ii >vj| focklessness. for across Egypt passes the most important right-oi-way in the whole Empire. Through false sontmioiitnlitv, through listening to nedlisiiie etiunscllors, dealers in phrases instead of facts, the British Government made a groat blunder by its declaration of Egyptian independence in IS)d-. It will take many years of more enlightened policy to repair that Mingle error.

“In Germany now bribery is so common that it is act opted as a matter of course. Hundreds of officials do net merely accept bribes; they ask for them.” This statement is made by Mr S. Miles Bouton, who was correspondent of the Associated Press in Europe from B>ll to 1919. ami is now living in Germany again to study present conditions. Mr Bouton says that the German Socialist Party is carrying on a campaign against religion, though officially it professes to rerognisc that “religion is a private aflair.” Iho churches are losing members by thousands, and children are encouraged to be “confirmed” in a Socialist service. Atheism is encouraged by hooks and spoken teaching, and the Socialistruled Diets of Saxony and Thuringia have given decisions that have allotted the schools in a similar way. The prevailing bribery, says Mr Bouton, is due in part to ofti< ial salaries being out of proportion to the cost ol living; but men and woman to whom their religion is real do not sell their honour, no matter how groat their need. Moral laxity is showing in other ways. Triumphant pornography sots its stamp on most theatres and on a very great part of the contemporary literature. Sexual morals are lax. Business morals have suffered greatly. A great part of the country's youth insists oil its light to ‘Mile one’s soil out. and the daini is allowed. Brandy and cigarettes were forced on children at a party, and a business man consulted Mr Bouton on the host place at which to hilv a cigarette case for his godson on his fourteenth birthday, '1 lie Berlin papers reported recently, that crimes had so increased that tor the first time on record all the cells at the police presidency were occupied, and prisoners had to await vacancies,