FATHER O'SULLIVAN IN MASTERTON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10055, 28 May 1910, Page 5

FATHER O'SULLIVAN IN MASTERTON.

FROM THE LAND OF THE PHAKOAHS. AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW. An interesting visitor from a distant land, the Very Rev. D. J. O'Sulhvan, late of Cairo, Egypt, has just arrived in Mcsteiton, and is the guest of the Veiy Rev. Dean McKenna. Seen by a the "Age/' Father U'Suliivan gave for publication some very interesting information respecting Egyptian current affairs, which will no doubt be read with interest in view of the recent sensational cablegrams from the banks of the Nile. Thousands of years ago the mighty empire of ancient Egypt controlled the destinies of the world from Thebes of a hundred gates. To-day Britain c:r.trcls the destinies of Egypt.. In the interview which follows, Father O'Suhivan deals with the nature of that control, and shows the immense bei efits which it has conferred cponEj?:-pt. Coming as no does from that country with which he has had a connection of 24 years, the information which he brings comes directly from the most reliable source. Father O'Sullivan said:—"l have no hesitation in affirming that the success of the sc-cailed Natlcrjal movement in Egypt would be tisasterous to the best interests of Uat country. The withdrawal of the Bri tish Protectorate at the present moment, or at any future time now in. view, would mean the abandoning to the tender mercies of domestic r.r.d foreign enemies an unfortunate population of some 11,000,000 •• r 12,000,000 of Fellahten who are r.o more capable than mere cl.ildren either of protecting or of govs rning themselves; and it would li> ewise mean the undoing, in a very few years of native • rule, of ail the immense and lasting benefits which the Protectorate has conferred cn Egypt in 19 years. 1 It would be equally disastrous to the large Euxt - pean and Christian populations ta which|Egypt owes so much. It is a fact of general notoriety in the Orient that had it not been for tbs strorg protecting hand of Britain the Lower Nile Valley, Irtm Khaitoum to Alexandria, would long since have been overrur by the fanatical Moslems hordes from the Soudan, and Christians and Europeans persecuted or massacred. With the withdrawal of the British army of occupation, that possibility wonld loom large and ominous on Egypt's tou> thern frontier again. The native Egyptian rising under Arabi Fasha in 1882 afforded the Christian residents of the Nile Valley an idea of what they might expect from a purely Moslem administration independent ofXChristian control. One of the features of that rising was the massacre of Christiana in Tartah and in other population centres of the Delta. In that • city—where I have spent some years—during several days subsequent to the rrassacre the flesh of murdered Christians was exposed in the market place. Another item in the programme of thai rising was the wholesale repudiation of Egypt's' national indebtedness to creditors in England and That self-same anti-Christian spirit animates the national movement among the Fellaheen population today, and is only kept in check by the presence of British troop 3. As an instance of it 3 existence, I may recall the murder of a British officer by an infuriated mob at the village of D:nshawi, near Tantah, two or three years ago. I was recently informed by one of our missionaries stationed at Tantah that prior to the exemplary punishment which promptly followed that murder, he found it impossible to appear in this village without being insulted; but that since the execution of the murderers he has always been able to pass unmolested. Never before during centuries of Tur kish and native rule had Egypt been governed in the best interests of the Egyptians as it really has been during those nineteen years of British administration. The purely native government of former days is still remembered as a government of bribery and carruption. Baksheesh was a publicly recognised motive p:*wer in the functioning of every department of the administration of Egyptian affairs. It was even said that some of the judges on the bench had their prices. Under'such a state of things [the prosperity which Egypt enjoys to-day would have been utterly and absolutely impossible. Such huge schemes as the Assouan dam—a gigantic undertaking worthy of the days of the Pyramids— and the irrigation thereby of millions of acres destined otherwise to remain barren and unproductive would never have been thought of. I feel absolutely convinced that the success of the Nationalist movement would mean a return to this old-time system of exploiting Egypt in the interests of a favoured few. The agitators may call their system of government what they please, but it would infallibly become sooner or later, what I have described. "No, tbe Moslem populations of Oriental countries are, so fir, incapable of governing themselves either in Egypt or elsewhere. The only practical [way we of ascertaining what they ]_can do or whas

they are likely to do in this respect is*by studying what fey have icuaiiv done. We know what the native government of Egypt has been under such enlightened and progressive rulers as Mohammed Ali and Ismael Pasha. The lalter plunged the country"hopelessly in "debt, and then the national party of those days under Arabi Pasha wanted to repudiate the indebtedness. La&t year I visited two Oriental ciur.tries stili Mnde? Turkish rule —Syria ard Palestine and I had an opportunity cf witnessing the contrast afforded by the respect for law and order ar.d the security of life and property which the Criiish Protectorate established in and the shameless disorder and wholesale lr.security of life ar.d property permitted by Turkish rule in the countries I have ramed. In !h" month of May last, (he steam er sailed in from Egypt anchored in St Gorge's Bay, half a mile irom Beyrout, the chief seaport town of Syria, north of Palestine. We had scarcely anchored when some fifty oocimca from the chore, in Turkish garb, surrounded the . vessel, smarmed on board, pushed the passenger aside in rushii:2 up the gangways, swore al those who remonstrated, coerced passengers into accepting their services at exorbitant prices, and generally act-id as if they had actually taken possesion of the vessel. Coming as 1 did from Egypt, where such scoundrelly disorder would never be permitted, I could not help remarkin? : ' Vv'a miss the strong protecting hs;:d of Britain hew.' During a stnv of two days at Beyrout tne horrifying of the massacres at Aclana and Alexandrette, situated further up the csast, just reached us. We alto learned from pertly authentic sources that siinilsr mss:::;cics of Christians had been planned and arranged for Beyrout, Damascus and several other cities of Syria and Palestine. Fortunately for the Christians the Governors of these cilies disobeyed the orders they had received. During the railway journey to Damascus, and thence southwards through Palestine, every traveller we encountered was heavily armed; There was practically no police protection afforded by Turkish rule. Those who desire to travel in safety in these countries must take measures to protsct themselves. At Damascus I visited salons m Christian homes replete with Oriental iuxuxry and splendour, but hidden ay,'ay in some obscure street beneath exteriors of the meanest and humbleat apearance. With the shameless insecurity of life and property under Turkish rule, the rich man,, and more especially the Christian, of these countries lives in constant dread of being one day robbed and plundered,and he therefore prudently conceals his wealth as much as possible irem the public gaze. At Jerusalem I was afforded another tr.stance of Turkish rule. Pilgrims to Jerusalem usually desire to visit the Dead Sea, some 25 miles distant. The route is infested with Bedouin Arabs, who are professional brigands. To protect himself against those miscreants, the traveller is obliged to employ an armed dragoman and an. escort cf soldiers. It sometimes happens that the escort suddenly demands a substantial increase of pay durine the journey. If .so, the traveller must promptly comply with the demand, for th2 soldiers themselves are frequently in league with the Bedouins, and would not hesitate to hand him over to their tender mercies. During my stay in Jerusalem a tourist who had neglected to take the precaution of an armed escort was robbed of everything he possesses—even of his garments—and left absolutely naked on the route to the Dead Sea. Such are the bhssinga "of Turkish and native rule in the Orient; and £yet, accordfrig to recant cablegrams, thi3 is the same Moslem rule which "the so-called representatives of the Egyptian National Party would have to govern Egypt instead of the British Protectorate. Thß monstrous absurdity of the demands of those gentlemen will perhaps be better understood when it is known that the agitators and originators of the movement are mainly young Egpytian students in Paris, flattered and encouraged in the antiEnglish political salons of that city. These are the gentlemen—those noisy vouth3 of 25 —who would take the administration of the Nile Valley out of the hands of the British Protectorate and assume the government cf Egypt themselves. This is practi-

cally what they seek, and they demand that the Christian world approve of their demands. And why? Nineteen years ago their oTrn native rule had brought their country to the verge of bankruptcy and to a stage of helplessness to protect itself against the Soudanese who threatened its very existence; and now that the Protectorate has saved the country from the double danger, they wast the blessings of the native baksheesh government, with Turkish suzerainty back again. I feel confident th?y will continue to want it, for Britain is in Egypt to stay."