The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, MARCH 24, 1910. THE TROUBLE IN EGYPT.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 71, 24 March 1919, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, MARCH 24, 1910. THE TROUBLE IN EGYPT.

For the causa that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

In Egypt the British arc involved in ] what seems to bo- the moet eerious disturbance* that have occurred since they established themselves there nearly forty yeare ago. The disturbances are in the nature of a widespread rising, of which etrikee, rioting, attacks on Government property, and murder of British officers are features. The movement hae de- i veloped very suddenly. In December a Ministerial crisis was caused 'by thej resignation of the Premier and ths refusal of other public men to fill the post, and this 6tate of things seems to have continued to the present time. The recent deportatior of leaders of the Nationalist movement, following on this political development, precipitated the rising. Comment on the situation is made difficult by the curious fact that Egyptian polities have received compara-1 tively little attention during the war. j Although Egypt iwas one of the strategic centres of the great struggle, and a bane for campaigns in Palestine, Arabia, Western Egypt and the Soudan, the Bri-1 tish Press published very little information about the internal conditions of the country. Xo doubt the censorship was partly responsible for this. But «o far as one can judge, Eg3 - ptian unrest did not cause the British Oovernment any acute anxiety during the war. The Khedive, who had always been opposed to British control, was deposed because he threw in his lot with Germany, and

at the same time hie euccessor was raised to the dignity of Sultan of Egypt, and Britain's position in the country regularised t>y the proclamation of a protectorate. The new Sultan was a warm friend of England, and so, apparently, is his successor. From the first days of the war the Germane and Turks

worked hard to etir up a revolt against English authority in Egypt, but with no real success. The native army remained loyal, and the people quiet. This army was little used during the war, but Egypt in some ways iwas of great

assistance to Britain, particularly in furnishing the Palestine striking force with large quantities of supplies and many thousands of labourers.

But the Nationalist movement in Egypt is an old growth und caused tlie British official world eume trouble before the war. The present attempt to gain its ends by force has been inspired partly by the wave of Nationalism that ie sweeping over the world. It may ako have been engineered to some extent by friends of the old Khedive, who must have left a considerable following in the country, and Turco-Uerman intrigue may (still be active west of Suez. The demobilisation of the arni3' collected from all over the Empire to war on the Turk has probably given the Nationalist agitator a more favourable opportunity now than he has had during the last two or three years, though the forces at General Allenby's disposal must still be considerable. A great deal depend,* upon the loyalty of the native army, which numbers about 17,000 men, under British officers; we may be sure that efforts have been made to corrupt it. The seriousness of the situation is apparent from our cable messages, and the restoration of order may be a long and difficult business. The British Government has no choice but to restore order. In the interests of Britain and of the civilised ■world the British control over Egypt must be maintained. Our policy has never been one of absolute suppression of the Nationalist movement, but one of gradual development. It is the avowed object of Britain, both in India and EtQ'Pt) to move slowly along the path to self-government, giving the native populations more of a voice in the management of their own affairs as they show themselves fit for such power. There have been representative institutions in Egypt for thirty-live years, and though under the present constitution the Government is not bound by the resolutions of the Assembly, that body has considerable power, including the right of veto on new taxation. Besides ex-

tending political power among the native population the British governors of Egypt have developed and improved popular local government, all of which shows that the often expressed British policy of governing alien races so as to enuble them ultimately to govern tliemselvee Lβ not a mere empty theory.

But a long time must elapse before the Egyptians aro lit for complete self-gov-ernment. It is not so very long, as periods in the lives of peoples go, that the Egyptians were groaning under a tyranny that vra3 au offshoot of the Turkish Empire, and you cannot prepare so backward a people for self-government in forty .years. The real Egyptian is not the educated or Bemi-edueated agitator of the towns, with a veneer of Western culture, but tho plodding, ignorant peasant, whose world of thought contains little else but his family, his crops, and his taxes, and whose test of the quality lof his government is that the taxes shall be low. Such a man lias many good qualities, but he is not fit to govern himself under the conditions that modern progress has brought to Egypt. British ability and British integrity rescued Egypt from tyranny and bankruptcy, brought her able and honest government and amazing material prosperity, and saved the country from the menace of the fanatical barbarism that had established a ferocious Empire in the Soudan. This wonderful fabric of safety, justice, and prosperity must not be imperilled. The Suez Canal is one. of the world's arteries, and the good government of the country through which it passes affects not only Britain and her Empire, but the world generally. That all Egyptians should be satisfied and grateful is not tobe expected, for, though an alien Government may be respected, it is never loved, and the experience of the most enlightened Empires with Orientals is that gratitude for relief from oppression and for prosperity is not lasting, and probably never very general.