The Daily News TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21. HOME RULE FOR EGYPT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 194, 21 September 1909, Page 2

The Daily News TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21. HOME RULE FOR EGYPT.

It was cabled last Thursday that a j demonstration of several thousands at i Cairo telegraphed Mr. Asquith protesting against the British occupation of Egypt, the telegram declaring that the Egyptians relied on the engagements and solemn oaths of the late Queen Victoria's Governments, and adding: "To gain our friendship is more preferable for English honor than to lose ouv hearts and support." Simultaneously a congress, sitting at Geneva, passed a like resolution, which the irrepressible agitator, Keir ilardie, who was prestr.it. identified himself with. A wave of political dissatisfaction seems to be sweeping over Britain's subject countri??,

gaining power no doubt from the success achieved by the partis o£ reform | in.Turkey and Persia. Britain backed, up the propaganda of the Young Turk-; ish party and wlutt might be called the Young Persian Party, and the Egyptian und Indian Nationalists tluit I what ia good and desirable for these | countries should bu equally good and I desirable for Egypt and India. The argument hfouis as strong as it is natural, but, in Uie rase of Egypt, one has but to consider the peculiar conditions connected with the country and its government to appreciate the position. Egyptian affairs are often discussed as though the opinions of the Egyptian and of the British had alone to ho consulted. This is a cardinal, though an obvious,# mistake. Not only does Egypt still form part of the Otloma.i I Empire, but according to the law of I Europe. Britain in dealing with Kgypt I stands on a footing of absolute equality with sixteen other Powers. A«ul this equality is not diplomatic fiction. It is a very important reality. H is owing to this legal status of equality that the Capitulations cannot ,be modified witnout the consent oi every European j Power. The Capitulations, which prej vent any important law from being made applicable to foreign subjects I without the consent of all the rowers, spread their blight over all natural progress in Kgvpt. It is enough to givu the words in which Lord Cromer not long ago summarised the political con- ' ditions under the Capitulations:— 'TV lien people talk of an Egyptian Constitution, or-of an Egyptian Parliament which will have a right to tax Egyptians, or to make laws for Egyptian?, any such institution, unless its attributes and have received the unanimous consent of all the Powers, will have no power to tax a"! the dwellers iirTlgypi. and, morrow., "will be precluded from taking action u ail the more important spheres of legislative activity. . . To speak of Parliamentary government when Parlia-

ment cannot exercise any author ty over that section of the population which, though relatively small in number, is. in respect to its wealth, intelligence, spirit of enterprise, and inlluenci, the most important in the country, is merely to delude oneself with words. Once show nie a prospect that an Egyptian Constitution can be created which will truly represent the views and interests of all the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, whether European. African, or Asiatic, whether Christian or Moslem - one which will inspire the confidence o! Europe and of all the dwellers in Egypt of whatsoever race and creed one i which will maintain the reasonable rights of the Khedive, "whose very dillicult position in connection with all iFesc matters should be sympathetically recognised—one also which will safeguard the legitimate rights of Turkey—then, I. say, T shall at once become an ardent Egyptian Constitutionalist." Those sentences express a vast, if not a prohibitive, obstacle in the way of a Parliamentary regime in Egypt; yet. strange to fyy, it is commonly left out ot account 'altogether by those who, like Mr. Keir liardie, indulge in amiable visions for Egypt without troubling Jo inform themselves very precisely how they are to be realised. A country which t has even a bare chance of governing itself well must at least show an earnest desire to do so. Ability must be proved later, but the desire, must be there from the beginning. What sign is there of this desire? The elections to the existing Provincial Councils, which in their j turn send members to the Legislative J Council, ought to give some indication. Lord Cromer says:—

''There are ill Cairo a hundred an i thirty-four thousand male adult Egyptians who arc entitled to vote. At the last election only thirty-four thousand of these took the trouble to register themselves, aail of these only fiftej.. hundred, or 1.1 per cent, of the total number who might have qualified, voted. In one of the thirteen districts into which the town of Cairo is divided uo election took place, owing lo the fact that there were no candidates, aud that none of the electors put in an appearance during the whole day. At Alexandria, with an adult male Kgyptian population of seventy thousand, only fourteen thousand electors are registered, and of thesu only seven hundred and fifty took part in the last election. The same experience was repeated elsewhere, Indeed, in many places it appears that it was only through the energetic action taken by the local authorities.. aided by the village policeman, that anv one was induced to vote at all."

It is surely obvious that there must be Uvo preliminaries to Constitutionalism in Egypt; One ,s the successful working of the present local governing bodies, and the other _is a successful attempt by the Kgyptian Nationalists to associate European residents with them in this work of self-government. The Capitulations will never be removed, and Egypt will never become in nny real sense a nation, till all the Powers of Europe arc sal sfied that their nationals ana their interests will bv as safe under Egyptian rule as they are under British administration to-day, They will expect assurances and representations on this point from their nationals. Yet, incredible though it seems, the Egyptian Nationalists make pVaetfcally no effort to enlist foreigners on their side, They remind them that they arc foreigners, instead of trying to draw them gently into a common national life.

It may be said: i; But why should not Egypt be left to govern herself in v.,-r own way? If she cannot create a Parliamentary model because that is alien to her instincts, why should she not still be free to live according lo her inclinations and her lights?" The answer is simple and brief. To do that would he to allow Egypt to return lo despotism and misery. If Lord Cromer can nuke one claim more justly than another, it is that lie helped the poor poopjp of l-n.vpt- He helped them as against the more niinble-witted and educated class, who were very well able to look afte, themselves and their pockets. It would be an inhuman dereliction of our duty in the world to sacrifice the poor Egypto allow them to become once more the prey of extortioners and bullies, There might conceivably he a benevolent despotism for a short time, it is trues but just as the Ameripaa proverb about acquired wealth says ' ; from shirt-sleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations," so, we are sure, it would be a case of passing hack to the had old sort of tyranny in Egypt in about the same time, if not sooner. The people of Egypt have now a diro-.t appeal to the British officiate. Their habit of petitioning is no empty form. Grievances are examined and remedied as quickly as possible, and the people well know that this is so. It may 80, as some pessimists think, that the Egyptians will never qualify for Purlininentary government. Their minds) work differently from ours, and it is thought that one might as well invite a horse to become a lion. AVithout a sense of corporate needs, without a common a nd

collective purpose, without civic virtues, | without social energy, and with little recognition of tlieir low standard of public mornlity uiul courage, there can be no real progress made by her citizens in the work of regenerating Egyp,For years to come they must endeavor I to assimilate new ideas, reconcile, if I possible, tin; conditions which Tegulatc this social life with the new order which has arisen among them, and to gratt afresh this national existence on thf stock with which foreign hands, fl.lm.ist wholly British, have supplied them. Then, and not Jill then, they "will be ready for constitutional government.

PORT CITARGES, ETC. | A big field is opened up by the representations of the shipping companies to [he Harbor Board concerning the charge.s imposed upon vessels working the port of Xew Plymouth. First came i the request for the remission of the i passenger-tax of two levied oy

the Board in respect of every passen-1 ger embarking or disembarking on the wharf. This tax is being, borne by t'uI companies now. or, rather, they inclnle it in the fared charged. The second matter concerned the port dues, complaint bein«i made that the BoavdV olVt- | rials were interpreting the rules in an 1 unreasonable fashion by insisting that ,4 a day" meant the twenty-four hours from midnight to midnight, which meant that a vessel arriving an hour before midnight on Monday and leaving at one o'clock on Tuesday morning wou'.d j be debited with two days' charges, notwithstanding the fact thai she had hin there only two hours in nil. It seems j to us that the rules of the port are I being interpreted in a way that was | never intended when the code was framed, and thdt there is room for the introduction of a give-and-take policy in this connection. The rule at most of tin' principal ports of the Dominion its to •charge per day or part of a day, a day meaning twenty-four hours from the time of arrival. There is nothing

to prevent such a construction bein< put upon the Now Plymouth by-laws The passenger-tax difficulty is "not a] nil similar. For some years the Boavc levied a tax "of a shilling per head pH passenger, and the amount was- payabh by the passenger. Then the tax, whic-1 had been very productive but never very popular, was raised to two shil lings in consequence of the need for rc venue with which to carry on the ":ii provemcnts at the port. This, howev< ,v was not allowed to affect the travelling public. By that we mean that the in creased tax was not added to the fare the companies defraying it. Then cann the competition of the Main Trunl railway line, anil, the companies faili.ij, to grasp the situation, the railway "Oi a very big proportion—indeed, almos the whole—of tlie passenger traffic. Tin shipping people ran practically empt? boats for a time, still maintaining th< old fares, about which there had Ion; been -complaint and from which th people were glad Enough to escape evej at the expense of a weary twent} hours 5 ride in a train. Later on. th ftteamer services were reduced fron daily to bi-weekly trips—a course tha ulayed into the hands of the rail way« and lendod to kill whatever tnf fic that was left Xew Plymouth. Witl the alteration came a very considerab! reduction in f«ros. but of course th ieduction was made too late In th day, and, in any case, could not hope attract patronage when the service ha< been reduced to a bi-weekly one % Th steamship companies are not the oni, losers. Tile Harbor Hoard loses heavil, by" the consequent shrinkage in the pa? senger-tax, harbor dues. etc. For th: reason we art l afraid the Board will T unable to grant the abolition of th passenger tax. The Board's positioj simply cannot permit of it being done To dispense wilh this source of reveii'i would probably entail the levying of , rate in the not distant fuiurt The materialising of such a con tingency everyone who bus the ii tcrestfi of the harbor at heart nut* fight ngainst. Tt might pay the Bon'.' to meet the companies to the extent n making a reduction in the preset charge. That ivould necessarily be dc pendent upon a improvement in th present service between here and Om huncra. Were the prisent highly ur satisfactory service to continue, the* would be no justification for the Boat remitting any portion of the tax. Bu \ve feel «nre that withtyit any rein ? sion of the tax. t.h° summer passengr traffic will compel Hie inauguration o n tri-weekly service,. The •overlan.route is by no means popular with trsi vellers. We have yet to come aoros a person bavin? made the journey wh desires to repeat it. "With the low* «tennirr charges and a tri-wcekly soi vice the \cw Plymouth route will, w fKe be w°U natronised. A nnv rate, tne Lri-weckly service shouh be given a fair trial bv the steam"" 1 rnmnmies. _ We would also like to sc the Board give consideration to the cos of working the port. Though the sail incrs from thn port are less than liaV what they used to b.\ the Board retain; an expensivr harbormaster's staff, cor- 4 ; inof over ClO/iO n year. When shippi.ip fell oft. th* railway stnll' was promptly reduced, and the >h'i)pinu companies Tin»i to curfail stuff and other expenditure, The onlv ■curtailment of the Boards salaries has been in the office, where the abolition «f th- rate has lessened the clerical work. Why not institute 8 policy of retrenchment at the port? Surelv with sn>h a serious reduction- m the trade at the wharves the staff <\va be correspondingly decreased. Tf the nort is forked on economical lines and the companies give us n triweekly service. »ve Ifiv no fear but that traffic flnd trade will materially'improve and the Board's position become such as to cause no thcleavt anxiety.