The New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, JANUARY 26. THE PROBLEM OF THE SPHINX.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3648, 26 January 1899, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 26. THE PROBLEM OF THE SPHINX.

With which is Xnooepoeated the Wellington Independent, Established , 1815. ,

What is to be the nature of the future control of Egypt ? Is the whole question to be re-opened just now at the instigation of France ? Is the land of the Pharaohs destined to provide that cause of quarrel which certain prophets declare must arise this year or next and embroil the leading nations of the earth in a life and death struggle ? On these questions the Future is as inscrutable as the Sphinx herself; but so far as present indications go, there is no reason to apprehend the early emergence of a state of ,crisis. The careful policy resolved upon by the British Government with regard to the Soudan provinces and Egypt proper is such as, while consolidating the British position, is calculated to create the minimum of friction in these countries and of irritation to France and Turkey. To have proclaimed a British protectorate over Egypt would have been to invite a storm of protest. Sir Edward Grey, a late Liberal Parliamentary Sefcretary,' stated the case against a protectorate very , clearly in the course of a recent address at Blackburn. He commented *upon the attempts that had been made to press upon Lord Salisbury that the British position in Egypt should be still further changed by being turned into a protectorate. He did not think it right to press a proposal of that kind on the Government. Great Britain had a moral obligation to the Egyptian people to see that the good work which she had done was dot destroyed or arrested, but continued. That had kept Britain ,in Egypt, and would keep her in Egypt. But the British people also owed this : much to Europe* that they should not upon their own initiative open the Egyptian question, and thereby create a disturbance among those*'European Powers by whose consent they had hitherto stayed in Egypt. If other Powers chose to open the Egyptian question, .then Britain must take her own line; but he expressed a very decided opinion that the British people “ ought not to make use of what had occurred in the Soudan to open a very difficult question.” These wise and moderate sentiments have prevailed, and the British proposals in Egypt take the form of a simplification of the judicial system, and an improvement of the administrative power in other ways, including the appointment of British officers as Governors of the Soudan provinces of Omdurman, ■ Sennaar and Fashoda.

The temperate tone adopted by the French Chamber of Deputies in debating the-Egyptian question is a hopeful sign that the French' nation is, like the British, inclined to be conciliatory. This will not, however, prevent the whole Egyptian question being raised, diplomatically, in the course of the negotiations now in progress for the settlement of the Fashoda and Bahr-el-Ghazal difficulties. The* validity of Great Britain’s position in Egypt will be contested with all the intellectual keenness for which French diplomats are famed; but if the matter is dis-

cussed calmly and reasonably, there can be little doubt of the outcome being an affirmation of the British right to control the country in the interests of civilisation and progress. A demand for evacuation would ho an absurdity, especially in view of the fact that France herself holds a much less regular position in Tunis, and makes no attempt to disguise her claim to the absolute ownership of that country. The most that France can justly ask for in Egypt is a return to what may be called the “status quo auto Arabi ” —the condition of dual control by Great Britain and Franco, from which the latter Power withdrew by declining to take part in the measures for the suppression of Arabi’s rebellion. But tins would not suit the “ jingoistic section of the French people, who would look upon a return to the dual control as being quite as groat a “ humiliation ” to France as .the withdrawal from Fashoda. For the Anglophobes nothing will do but the expulsion of the British from Egypt, and the relinquishment of the government into the incompetent hands of the Khedive, with the certainty of misrule, disaffection, revolt, disorder and war once more following each other and rendering European intervention again necessary. These enthusiasts shriek for a vigorous expenditure on war preparations, and seek to heap opprobrium upon the Government for promoting the great Exposition to be opened next year, when there is need of devoting the money to defending the material interests of the country. Happily, however, the “ Jingoes ” of Prance ! are a minority so small that they are powciless to provoke a conflict over a foreign question. Most Frenchmen like a Paris Exhibition better than, a foreign campaign, and hence the outlook is peaceful so far as the Egyptian question is concerned. Whether Franco will keep the peace among her own discordant elements, civil; militai y, monarchical and republican, is of course another and totally different matter; but even there, the sane sentiment of the mass of the people seems to bo asserting itself. In the case of Egypt, a good deal may depend upon the attitude of Russia and Turkey; and fortunately at present these Powers are most favourably disposed towards Great Britain. If, therefore, there should he the germ of grave trouble in the Egyptian situation, the Sphinx is for fihe time being absolutely inscrutable with regard to the probable development of events.