The English in Egypt.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 44, 5 April 1884, Page 6

The English in Egypt.

The news from Egypt by cable to-day shows that the English Government have not changed their policy, but that the Cabinet are resolved, while holding the shores of the Red Sea and maintaining the integrity of Egypt, not to involve the country in an expensive and protracted war in Nubia. General Graham broke up Osman Digna's camp and drove the rebels over the mountains almost without a struggle. Having burned their village, the troops are returning to Souakim. The experiences of this brief campaign are the best vindication of the British policy. A cablegram yesterday stated that in their short march 400 men (a very large proportion of the expedition) were prostrated with the intense heat ; and after all these hardships, what has been accomplished? — the rebels, mostly wild Arab horsemen, scamper off, to re-form, probably, in another place. Now, it is something like 300 miles, over the mountains and by an almost impassible road, from Souakim to Berber (the nearest point on the Nile). How could it have oeen supposed by the writer in the "Herald" to-day, if he had ever looked at a map, that General Graham meant to make such a mad excursion into hostile country with his small expeditionary force, who were falling by hundreds on every day's march ? It would be a futile and senseless policy for England to waste the lives of her troops in the wilds of equatorial Africa for no purpose in the world except a weak pandering to jingo sentiment. The territory is worthless — it has been a perpetual source of trouble to Egypt ever since it was acquired. The common-sense treatment of the whole question is that which Mr Gladstone has repeatedly declared his determination to pursue, namely, to select a strong frontier line for Egypt, and leave these wild Nubian bands to their beloved Prophet. England has quite enough work in hand, in the re-organisation of Egypt proper. Some effort should, no doubt, be made to withdraw General Gordon and any portions of the garrisons at Khartoum and Berber that remain loyal. But it is now evident enough that, despite his great experience, undoubted talent, and knowledge of the people, Gordon Pasha miscalculated the feeling of the inhabitants of the country. The garrisons are a mere handful in the midst of a hostile population ; and the subjugation of Nubia means a new conquest. But if the Arabs and blacks of this sultry climate want the False Prophet, why not let them have him ? The territory is of no use either to England or Egypt ; and surely it has not become a part of British policy to argue away religious delusions with cold steel. To main-

tain that England has any duty in entering upon this arduous and futile war, in which our troops will die like flies from heat and pestilence, is absurd. It will be as easy to deal with El Mahdi as with Osman Digna when he comes within striking distance ; and meanwhile it is the business of the British army of occupation to make adequate provision for the protection of Egypt proper, as far as it may be considered worth preserving.