THE H.B. TRIBUNE. TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1912. THE STATE IN EGYPT.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 181, 16 July 1912, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1912. THE STATE IN EGYPT.

\ “ I have been in Egypt teaching, or rather trying to teach the Egyptian youth for 21 years, and the conclusion I have come to is this: Every moment I have been in this country has been wasted . Every word of advice I have given has been, useless. Everything the English have done in cider to improve the moral and mental status cf the native has been absolutely thrown away.” These are the words of a high educational authority in Cairo, written in the course of a letter to Inspector H. Hill, of Napier. In view of the revelations regarding the Nationalist plot this letter is full of interest. It speaks of Egypt by a man, who knows the country and is qualified to speak with authority upon the subject he handles. It explains in a great measure why, notwithstanding the undeniable benefits of British rule, discontent still prevails. The letter continues: First the cause is their religion. which is so crystallised that it is rcjective rather than receptive of any innovation cr change to suit itself to modern conditions of life or thought, and the second is that wc have made the huge mistake of trying to make a “silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” An Oriental was, is, and always will be. an Oriental. You cannot change him, you cannot understand him. His mind is as tortuous as the Rio Grande, and his logic is incomprehensible to a Mcstern. We have tried Io make an Occidental of him by Occidental methods. M e have sent, and are sending him to England to cur best schools and 111*1versities with what result ’ The Gaekwar of Baroda. lie are creating a set of seditious fanatics worse than they could possibly have been had they never left their native land, and we have ceased to govern them in the onlv way an Eastern nation understands —by force ■ • • He

: have dropped the whin and they have picked it up. and it is we vvho will suffer in the end. This is going on not onlv here but also in India. ! and we shall soon be faced with a ; problem which will take all our inI grnmty to solve, if we arc able to ■ solve it. and ail our courage, so euc- ! ecssful in the past, will be wanted to I meet the situation we are creating.” I While in Cairo Mr. Hill met in the j -nrdens a number of young men. and ' by hearing a chance word of English i bv discovered they were studying the I laniruaae. His teaching enthusiasm I was atCnce aroused and he soon had ■an imprenitu school in operation. ! On returning to N.Z. .*1 r. Hill wrote ! to the gentleman above quoted menthe vii <".im stance of the class. ~ The reply should go 3 long i way to convince him that he wasted I iii-.' lime : "The young men ymi me(

; an- the kind that 1 have io do with, i a semi-cdiicated Oriental varnished

with a thin coat of veneer. He has no title to an atom of respect. He i is vicious, deceitful, treacherous, and ■ truth is a stranger to him. The I Egyptian I like and respect is the i man of the land, unspoiled by contact with Europeans and European ways. He is a man. at least, anti has some excellent qualities totally wanting in. the young effendi class, who rapidly acquire everything that is bad in European ways. This, added to their naturally vicious characters, makes them absolutely repulsive to a man of clean mind. No, they never learn to live English ways and they will never appreciate all the benefits they enjoy under English rule. The greater the benefits we give them the more they think wc are acting in an interested manner. They ought to see, but they don’t, or rather they won’t. They are too young to remember what things were like before 1882, consequently as they have always lived in an atmosphere of security and freedom they have taken license for liberty, throw mud with impunity, and. the politicians at Home who believe in ’’ ‘Aly Little Black Brother.’ encourage them in their pin-prick-ing policy and cause an incalculable amount of harm.” The truth of this last statement has ample verification in the idiotic action of Keir Hardie in India. Acting in exactly similar circumstances .meeting practically the same class of people as the letter has described, Mr. Hardie openly and wilfully gave countenance to the weakening of British rule. Men like Keir Hardie neither know, nor stop to think what the end of British law and order would mean either for Egypt or India. Far from bringing freedom and happiness it would inevitably bring tyranny and disaster. Peace was practically an | unknown word in India prior to British rule, and it would become an unknown word again if our supreme authority were withdrawn. Egypt too. would suffer similarly from the withdrawal of England, but as Mr. Hill’s correspondent says, these young agitators arc too young to remember the days before 1882.