AN INTERESTING CHAT WITH ARABI PASHA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9381, 22 March 1892, Page 3

AN INTERESTING CHAT WITH ARABI PASHA.

Since I saw Avabi l'asha at C. lombo, m January 188* (writes a Tress Agency correspondent) ho has undergone a painful physical deterioration. Yot, on the other hand, h's mental powers hnvu increased and expanded, for he can now speak the English language with considerable fluency. When we met seven years ago the Egyptian prisoner of war was a tall, well-proportioned, erect man of soldierly bearing, with but the merest shimmer of frost on his short, strong beard. Now he is round-shouldered and flabby, his face saturate^ so to speak, with the dank exhalations of malaria, his limbs crippled by rheumatism, his beard and hair are white, he no longer stands erect, and at the age of 51 he presents the appearance of a worn-out old man of 70. I was informed that Arabi was ill of fever, and his household full of influenza. I found Arabi lying upon a sofa, wrapped loosely in woollen shawls. He adopts a sort of ■ royal diction, speaking .of himself as "'we," "our," and " us "

" Our health," said Arabi, "is now very bad, and the climate of our prison homo is slowly but surely killing us. For a time our heart was filled with a great hope that supported our health; but about six years ago despair possessed us, and our health gave way. The climate of Ceylon is not as the dry, beautiful air of our own land. It is all summer, all hot, and very damp. Malaria is prevalent, and many fevers sweep ruthlessly across our path. We have suffered seriously from fever, and are now a martyr to asthma and rheumatism." "Why do you not go into the hills?" I asked.

Arabi smiled and said, "Oh, you do not know. We are unable to afford the expense which this would bring upon us. Our income is very small. If we required medical attendance, how could we afford to obtain visits from a Colombo physician ? We are allowed LSO a month, which is paid by Egypt. But of that sum we allow L25 a month for the maintenance of our wife and family in Egypt. Then our eldest son, who is with us here in_ Ceylon, takes Ll2 10s, and we ourself subsist upon what is left. We are unable to give our children the education they ought to receive. Lord Dufferin certified for 50,000f a year, which would have been L2OOO or so, but this allowance was ultimately cut down to L 600." I asked Arabi if he desired to return to Egypt. In replyie informed me that he had memorialised the British Government in favour of being transferred to either Egypt or Cyprus, "but our prayer was denied." " Have you," I asked, " done anything while here to excite the suspicion or anger of your gaolers"? "Nothing. On the contrary," added Arabi, .with another of his smiles, "we have won the approval of our gaolers. There is nothing written in the book against us. We pledged ourselves not to take part in political life either in Egypt or in Cyprus if we were permitted to go there, and Lord Delawarr (added Arabi, producing a reprint of a debate on the subject of his health, which occurred in the House of Lords last summer) gave that pledge to Lord Salisbury. We should not foment trouble. Our days are drawing to a close. We have no heart for fighting now. We only desire to'live and die in the peaceful enjoymentof our own land. We have not seen our family for nine years." "Naturally," said Arabi, "I watch the course of events at home with keen interest. You have asked me if it is possible to reopen trade with the Soudan. So long as the British soldiers remain in Egypt this will be impossible. The Soudan and Egypt are identical in every respect. They have the same religion, the same speech, the same aspirations. But the Soudanese hate the British, and they are hostile to the Egyptians because British troops are allowed to remain in our common country. Withdraw these men, and I would guarantee a fusion of the two peoples." To show me that he knew what he talked about, Arabi Pasha touched upon a conversation which he had with Lord Rosebery upon the employment of British officers in Egypt. He informed me that Lord Rosebery visited him eight years ago. The conversation turned upon the imprudence of . endeavouring to pacify the Khartoum district by the aid of British officers. Lord Rosebery, he said, wrote down all we told him, and before he left Ceylon he received a telegram announcing the attack upon Hicks Pasha and the destruction of his column. Said Arabi: "That convinced Lord Rosebery I was right. He has not changed his opinions." I also learnt that Arabi disapproved of the employment of General Gordon as a mediary between the Khedive and the Mahdi. "We knew Gordon very well," said he. "We had seen much of him. We felt his death with all our pity; but we expected it. He was an utterly unfit man for -fiuch_a-mission If_j:o.U_wanted tp_send someone to the Mahdi you ought to have chosen a priest, not a soldier. The Mahdi distrusted Gordon. He saw in him another Hicks."