HOME RULE FOR EGYPT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8446, 23 May 1907, Page 3

HOME RULE FOR EGYPT.

Under the not very attractive title of "Report on the Progress Made in the Various Administrative Departments of the Egyptian Government During the Year 1906"—issued by the Foreign Office—Lord Cromer gives a comprehensive survey of the difficulties of government in and of the aspirations of some of the the National Party—and thinks that the time is now ripe for a modified kind of Home Rule in Egypt —the establishment of a Local Legislative Council. "I am not aware," says Lord Cromer, • "that the Egyptian National Party has ever formulated its programme in any very precise terms, but so far as I am able to judge, they advocate the creation in Egypt of an institution similar to the British House of Commons. I presume I shall be right in assuming that what is proposed is, firstly, the creation of a Ministry responsible to the Chamber and dependant upon the maintenance of a majority for its existence; and, complete control over the finances country.

"The adoption of the first of these proposals would, unless I am much mistaken, produce a state of things •which may, without exaggeration, be termed chaotic. , The adoption of the second proposal would almost inevitably lead to national bankruptcy. , "Cohesion can only be secured by the creation of a local International Legislative Council. Apart from other grounds on which it may be defended as a reform beneficial alike to Europeans and Egyptians, I maintain that this measure will tend more than any other to create a community of interest among the heterogeneous population." As to the growth of Pan-Islamism, as fostered by the National Party, Lord Cromer recognises its gravity, but for all that does not think the .matter is by any means so grave as it has been represented to be. In his proposed Legislative Council, Lord Cromer would introduce twenty elected members. Each Power would prepare lists of notables to form an electoral college. Each voter would vote for twenty members, but only for four of his own nationality.