THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, MAY 17. 1909. UNREST IN EGYPT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3191, 17 May 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, MAY 17. 1909. UNREST IN EGYPT.

Sir Eldon Goist's official report as British Agent and Consul-General in Egypt, with regard to the unrest in Egypt, must have been penned before the recent terrible outbreaks of massacre and incendiarism in Asiatic Turkey, and therefore the sign 3 of widespread political unrest *hat he has not2d cannot be regarded as directly connected with those politi-cally-engineered atrocities at Mersina and Adana. But, at the same time, it is quite likely that the same political tendencies which operated in stirring up the reactionaries in Constantinople to organise a campaign of outrage against the Christian population of Asiatic Turkey, have also operated in producing the unrest which Sir Eldon Gornt has so candidly admitted to exist. At Adana and Mersina the disturbances and ma<3sa n .res were carried out by Mohammedans as a savage protest against the introduction of Franklsh reforms in Turkey. In Egynt the unrest is manifested not as a protest against the introduction of representative institutiqns, but as a sign of discontent with the rule of the foreigner. And it is tolerably certain that sedition in Egypt would swift!} pass into massacre were it not for the fact that Britain keeps an army of occupation in the country to hold down the discontented ones, and also controls the services of the well-discip-lined Egyptian army which, so far, has not failed to support the Khedive's Government in maintaining order. The political ideas of the Moslem "whole-hoggers" at Adana and Mersina are, it is true, diametrically opposed to those of the Egyptian Nationalists, who are working for Parliamentary institutions. But both are animated by the same detestation of the Christian element in their respective populations. It ia not, in reality, for the political formula of autocracy that the knife and the torch have been used with such deadly effect in Asiatic Turkey. Nor is it for the politicul formula of Liberalism on the Western pattern that the seditionmongers in Egypt have been plying yoice and pen against the British, who are virtually the rulers of the country. The true cause is, demonstrably, racial and religious pre-

judice—not divergence of pohtica ideals. And there are observant onlookers who declare that neither political concessions nor a regime which has introduced unexampled material prosperity will ever induce either the Asiatic or the North African Mohammedan to acquiesce in the domination of the Christian alien. One great danger of the upheaval in Turkey, and of the consequent Turkish atrocities in Asia Minor, is that the excitement may spread to Egypt and thence to other parts of North Africa. At the time of the Denshawi outrage, rather more than two years ago, Sir Edward Grey, speaking in his place in the House of Commons, issued an impressive warning concerning the condition, not only of Egypt, but of the whole of North Africa. The Foreign Secretary deprecated any relaxation of the severe punishment meted out to the fanatics who had attacked a party of British officers when they were out shooting. Sir Edward Grey let it be known very plainly that any signs of leniency would be interpreted as weakness and that the subterranean forces of unrest were very near the surface. If the situation made it necessary that such an impressive warning should be uttered two years ago it is certain that no improvement has been effected since then. Lord Cromer was in office as British Agent at Cairo and Adviser to the Government of the Khedive for 25 years. His successor, Sir Eldon Gorst, has carried on the great pro-consul's policy for the last two years. But though the administration of Lord Cromer and hi 3 successor has made Egypt rich and prosperous—and the country was virtually bankrupt when Lord Cromer went there in 1882; though its revenues are enormously increasing, in spite of the vast public works that have been constructed; though agriculture, commerce, and industry are developing side by side with unparalleled rapidity; though railways and other internal communications have been lavishly introduced; though schools of every kind have been opened, and the old days of the whip and forced labour for the feliabeen have been abolished, still the goodwill of the mass of the people has not been won, according to Sir Eldon Gorst's on showing. They enjoy unprecedented prosperity, but they are not contented. There are about 10,000,000 Mohammedans in Egypt, and the recent riots that had to be suppressed by military force lend point to Sir Eldon Gorst's brief statement that . widespread political unrest exists throughout the country and that the educated classes of Egyptians show no appreciation of the benefits gained under British administration.