LORD KITCHENER’S WORK.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1001, 26 September 1912, Page 4

LORD KITCHENER’S WORK.

SOLDIER WHO CAN SYMPATHISE WITH THE POOR.

Sir George Arthur, Bart, in an article in the fortnightly Review, replies to Mr Wilfred Sea wen Blunt, who in a recent letter declared that “ the whole tempera-

ment of the Egyptian Administration has been shifted back to a lower grade of morality.

“Lord Kitchener is known to the world at large as a great soldier, a stern economist, an unrivalled organiser,” says Sir George. “No intelligent observer of Egyptian affairs in these past months will refuse to credit him with the qualities of a successful diplomatist. “ As Sirdar, as Commander-in-Chief in South Africa and India, Lord Kitchener exhibited an extraordinary appreciation of racial characteristics, a talent which time after time enabled him to grapple successfully with local questions which another administrator less sympathetic in this respect might have been unable to solve.

“In the part which be now plays under the aegis of the Foreign Office, the British ConsulGeneral has shown not only an intimacy with European politics, but a fair and a lightness of hand which only those who knew him most intimately would have attributed to him, and his tenure of office in Egypt has already lighted up the thoroughly human side of his character.

“It needs but a superficial study of the White Paper (Lord Kitchener’s first report) to recognise that the British Agent’s first care has been to secure the good of the Egyptian people, and to show them in what direction health and happiness and prosperity lie ; to teach them that the great future of their country depends on their own united efforts, and that those efforts, instead ot being dissipated in the glorification of this or that political faction, must be concentrated on the development of the rich resources which lie at their feet.

“The strong soldier Who has at times been accused ot lack of sympathy and of holding human life too cheap, is revealed as the man for whom every detail affecting the lives, and especially the humble lives, which lie within the scope of his influence is of absorbing and vital interest. “ The country at large, and the Unionist party in particular, have many just causes of quarrel with the Government at present in office, but no fair-minded man, whatever his political creed, can refuse to give full credit to the Prime Minister for the appointment of Lord Kitchener to the Agency in Cairo.’’