EGYPT.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 May 1920, Page 12

EGYPT.

A REMARKABLE PROPHECY. (By A. L. King). The recrudescence ot; a little trouble in Egypt from time to time and "the agitation of the Nationalist societies for independence, retails a remarkable prophecy concerning Egypt in the Bible. According to this prophecy, which has already considerably more than two thousand years of fulfilment in verification of its accuracy, the Egyptians can never hope to be anything but a "base," or subject people, or have again a ruler of their own blood.

There was a time in the dim distant past, when Egypt was one of the greatest and most cultured of nations. The imposing ruins of the country to-cay are a mute witness of what she must oiice have been in science, architecture, and national glory. But Egypt failed to fulfil the purpose of the Most High, and weighed in the Divine balances was found wanting. Her day of destiny passed, and with it her national pomp and glory found a winding sheet in the desert sands.

The prophecy referred to was uttered by the prophet Er.ekicl in the days of PJiaraoh Hophra, or Apries, about 58!) B.C-: "They (the Egyptians) shall be a base kingdom. And there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt." — Ezek. 29, 14; 30, 13. The prophecy took a little while to develop fully, hut it has never since relaxed its grip on the destinies of (.lie Egyptians. Egypt was ravaged by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar, and later was subject to the Persians when the latter attained to world empire. In the Persian period the last native prince of Egypt, Nectanebes 11., sat upon the throne. He fled before the invading Persian forces about 340 B C., and since that time, although over 2200 years have rolled away, not another native prince, or "prince of the land of Egypt," has sat upon the throne.

On the downfall of Mcdo-Persia in 331 8.C., the Egyptians became subject to the all-conquering Alexander Ihe Oreat, then to the Ptolemies, and in 30 B C., Egypt became a Roman province.

MOHAMMEDAN RULE IN EGYPT. The Mohammedans conquered Egypt, in the seventh century, A.D., and the country was for long centuries under the heel of the Caliphs and other Moslem dynasties. In the thirteenth century the Mamelukes —the word comes from the Arabic "Mamluk," a slave —usurped the supreme power, and the Egyptians suffered for centuries the indignity of \being ruled by a rapid succession of first Turkish and then Circassian sultans who had risen from the ranks of slaves. Although there were periods when the Moslem dynasties ruling Egypt were practically independent of other rulers and countries, yet it could not be said that the Egyptians themselves were independent. They were ruled by foreign masters, downtrodden and oppressed, and had no voice in the affairs or their country.

Egypt was conquered by the Turks in A.D 1517, although the power of the Mameluke chiefs continued until they were treacherously murdered by Mohammed Ali in 1811.' MOHAMMED ALT. Mohammed Ali was an Albanian of peasant birth and practically no education, who by his great natural abilities, military skill and powers of intrigue, managed to get himself appointed by'the Porte governor of Egypt in iSO 5.' For yours be was the most striking figure in the Orient, and secured for'himself the nickname of the ''Lion of the Levant." Quarrelling with his overlord, the Sultan of Turkey, he came, in 40, very near to driving the Sultan from his throne, but the Powers intervened in the struggle, and Mohammed Ali's grand dream dissolved into thin air.

ISMAIL PASHA. His grandson, Ismail Pasha, pnved the way for European intervention in the internal affairs of Egypt. In his financially ruinous effort to'secure prestige with European sovereigns and honors from the Sultan, Ismail became the most reckless spendthrift of his day. When he became viceroy in ISG3, the Egyptian debt was a little over £3.0.10.000; only sixteen years later, in 'IST!), it stood at. nearly £100,000.000. On his visits to European capitals and to the Sultan, he scattered gold with a lavish hand, a personal present to the Sultan amounting in one instance to £OOO,OOO. Yet practically all the 1 honor he received from Constantinople, was the hereditary title of Khedive. Finding himself hard-pushed for funds, he sold, i# ]S7.">. some 177.000 shares in the Suez Canal tn the Disraeli Government for .£4,000,0€!1. But Ismail could not always keep 011 borrowing money in Europe to spend it with a prodigal hand, and heavier taxes could not, possibly be extorted from an over-taxed, poverty-stricken and despairing people. Tim crash came suddenly In 1879, when the Porte, at. the instance oft the Powers, deposed Tsmali from the Kliediviate, and appointed his son Tewfik in his stead-

ARABI'S REBELLION. Enrly in the Kliediviate of Tewfik occurred the rebelPon of Ahmed Arabi, the Egyptian, 'vh'ch brought about British military intervention in Egypt. Arabi was an ignorant Egyptian of the pensant class, who started a revrtlt in the Egyptian army, in which he was an officer, and by some strange caprice of circumstances, became practically military dictator in Egypt, defying both the Porte and the Powers. Had Arabi's rebellion succeeded, Egypt would undoubtedly have become independent, under an Egyptian ruler. But a Divine voice in the long ago had ordered the destiny of Egypt otherwise. On account of the jeopardy of lives of Europeans and Arabia's preparations for war, Croat Britain decided to intervene. France was invited to co-operate, but declined. a decision she later keenly regretted. The.British fleet, in ISS2, bombarded the forts of Alexandria, and two months later the troops under General Sir Garnet Wolseley encountered Arafii's army entrenched at Tel-el-Kebir. Wolseley launched a night attack, and twenty minutes later the whole Egyptian army 'was in headlong flight. Awaking from his sleep, Arabi fled barefooted from the field. In after -years he complained that the British had not even given him time to put his boots on.

BRITAIN IN EGYPT. From that time, but with undoubted advantage to Egypt and its people, the hand of England has been at, the heh:i of Egyptian affairs. Sir Evelyn Earing (afterwards lord Cromer) devoted his great abilities and twenty-five years of his life to bringinj; equity and prosperity out of Egyptian chaos and misrule. He found Egypt' ruined and miserable; pe left it iii 1007 not only wealthy and

prosperous. Jjitt of Ihe lightest-tax-ed countries in {lie world. The great hulk of tlie Egyptians consist of {he fellaliin, or peasant class. These, while perhaps not particularly grateful i.r: what England lias done for them, seem on the' whole well satisfied with the prosperity and other benefits British rule has -brought. A far smaller c;lass is (lie di'c.uli, or educated Egyptians. It is this class that mainly breeds the malcontents who clamor for automony. For British rule . h.ts prevented them from preying and fattenins. as they formerly did, on -the downtrodden fcilahin. Moral worth and incorruptibility they have found it difficult to understand or appreciate, and they loathed Lord Cromer, a man of high principle:; and sterling worth.

1" tli.' 1 light of (lie 'destiny that hasinexorably controlled over two millenniums of Egypt's immemorial past, an independent. Ktrypt governed by Egyptians is an impossibility. Even the Sultan, Prince TUtsse in Pasha Kamel, appointed to the Sultanie throne by Britain when she declared a protectorate over Egypt in 3 014, is of foreign blood, being the oldest living member of the house of Mohammed Ali, the great Albanian. Egypt and the Egyptians would gain nothing, and probably lose very much if British rule were withdrawnAs things are, the Egyptian malcontents would be wise in knowing just when they and their countrymen are really well oil. For ages oppressed, downtrodden and misruled, the Egyptians have never been -so well governed and pros:perous as under British guidance and prptection.