TOPICAL PORTRAIT SERIES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 116, 19 May 1906, Page 1

TOPICAL PORTRAIT SERIES.

LORD CROMER

THE REAL POWER BEHIND THE

KHEDIVE'S "THRONE.'

"Le Temps" (Paris) criticises the proposals of Lord Cromer, CoiisulGeneral in Egypt, and defends the mixed tribunal.

A cable reported: "Lord Cromer submits, for the consideration of all parties concerned, a startlingly bold scheme for a practically new legislative and new judicial system. The scheme proposes to abolish the capitulations, and give European residents a representative council for legislation concerning themselves." The scheme submitted is clear on the face of it, but while admitting the boldness, it is questionable if there is anything so very startling aUout it. Plainly it is a proposal towards greater simplification., and if ever a country needs that, "it is Egypt to-day. Indeed, it is extremely doubtful if any man but Lord Cromer could have handled such " a complicated set of books" as the "House of Bondage" has presented over the last twenty odd years. The very domination of his personality has prevented that friction which under a less able representative would almost have been inevitable. Perhaps the finest testimony to the genius of Lord Cromer is presented in the work he has done in Greater Egypt, or in what has been styled the Lost Province. Not many statesmen would have drafted the programme which he and Lord Kitchener adopted for the pacification of the Soudan. This may be summarised thus:

Equipment of an Anglo - Egyptian Army by the authority of the Khedive and with the countenance of the Sultan.

Successful military operations Avith Omdurman as the final crowning triumph.

Removal of all serious abuses and re-establishment of Government.

Checkmate to France, then the chief obstacle to Britain's Egyptian polkry. Equal recognition of the British and Egyptian flags, but with the former in administrative supremacy. And—Success.

No bolder scheme than the conquest of tho Soudan was ever propounded, and no more difficult task was ever undertaken than its accomplishment. In .all probability no other man than Lord Croiner could have conceived of such an extraordinary settlement with so much to justify it by results. It remains a testimony to his genius, and the best reason, perhaps, Avhy anything more he proposes should have the most respectful consideration. The increased status which the conquest of the Soudan gave the Khedive remains, or rather, it has been increased still further, but the power behind the throne has also increased, and that power is Evelyn Baring, first Earl of Cromer in the Peerage of Great Britain. Well has it been written of him —"Maker of Modern iiigj'pt."