NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13483, 9 May 1907, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE KHEDIVE ON EGYPT.

M. Rene Puatjx, the special correspondent of the Temps' who recently left for' Egypt,' sends that paper an account of an interview he has had with the Khedive; His' Highness said that the necessities of a peculiar political situation had for a long: time 'compelled him to refrain from , giving public expression to his views on the affairs of his 'country. But', as M. Puaux told him that 'his silence might be misconstrued abroad and as he himself was aware that in Egypt it was interpreted in various ways he would avail himself of the opportunity for making known his opinions and ideas. .The Khedive then dwelt on his; own and his subjects' passionate love of their country, which they never left fori good. In the absence of philosophy, -of historical science, they, had instinctive patriotism. "This conservative people is a people of progress. I have followed its development day by day, surprised at the prodigious facility wherewith it assimilates itself to European culture. I have seen in our factories the most intricate machines handled by. Egyptians. The engineers who took me round observed, not without pride, that the entire personnel consisted of natives who had been trained in a few; weeks. That intelligence has found application in the development of modern civilisation in Egypt. The day is approaching when the Egyptian peasant will be the equal of the peasant of the most civilised country. The finances have recovered stability. The confidence of Europe has come back to us in such a measure that Cairo and Alexandria are two of the most important" financial centres of the world." The Khedive went on to say: " It is quite wrong to allege that the national claims assume the form of an anti-foreign and fanatical movement. I emphatically deny it. It has been stated that I aspired to the restoration of my personal power, to exercise it in Oriental fashion, to return to the methods of-despotism and the dissipation of certain of my predecessors. I may tell you in reply that my whole education was in Europe and that there I understood the necessity of the co-operation of the nation with the Sovereign for the administration and good of the country. Despotism would be too heavy a task for my shoulders, and, moreover, if all my thoughts only tended [ to that satisfaction of ray personal vanity the 15 years of my reign would only have been one long and intolerable period of suffering. But I am conscious of having laboured with all my strength for the good of the country, and that is what made me take courage in difficult times. I always set my personality on one side, and I have but one. line of political conduct, only one—namely, to j work in agreement with anybody for the - good of the country. I never opposed measures which I believed to be useful to Egypt, and 1. never refused advice." The Khedive also spoke to M. Puaux of his desire to push the Egyptian railroads more and more towards the West, developing Egyptian interests. in the direction of Tripoli and thus personally contributing to a plan of vast importance— the TransAfrican railway, which would one day unite Tangier with Cairo. On taking leave of M. Puaux the Khedive said:— "Tell the French to come to Egypt in large numbers. We do not forget what they have been for us, arid we are very fond of them all the same." M. Puaux puts the words " all the same" in italics.

"electric eye" has been contrived. The device consists of an electrical connection between every rail within a block of a line. If there is any ; defect in any, rail the flash will be transmitted to a signal tower, and no train can enter the block until the fault has been located and remedied. This device is to be J introduced at once upon all the principal railways in the United States. An agreeable consequence to the public, which it is hoped is not incidental and ternporary, of the anti-corporation feeling in the United States is a sudden across of politeness toward passengers among the guards and other servants of the tramways in the principal American cities. It has been a tradition of urban life in America that the local traveller must endure meek'ly arrogance and insult at every step. The officials of a number of large transit corporations have now issued instructions to their employees that hereafter their patrons are to be treated with a reasonable degree of politeness. In view of the traditional hurry of business life in the United Slates, it is hailed as a remarkable phenomenon that a petition signed by some of the leading financiers and professional men of Chicago, and New York has been addressed to the presidents of the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railways, asking them to discontinue ; the phenomenally rapid passenger trains between those cities. The petition requests that the running time of the limited trains be increased from eighteen hours to twenty hours. This is another evidence of- the impression made upon the public mind by recent accidents. ■