BRITAIN AND EGYPT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13861, 26 March 1907, Page 5

BRITAIN AND EGYPT.

NATIONAL'CLAIMS. STATEMENT BY THE KHEDIVE. Press Association—By Telegraph-Copyright. CAIRO, March 25. (Received March 25, at 10.17 p.m.) The Khedive has informed a, French journalist that the Egyptians are highly intelligent and quite capable of managing their own concerns. He denied that thpse national claims assumed Ilie form of an ailli-foreigll fanatical movement, and repudiated any desire to become a despot. He declared that \bc Egyptians were very fond of the French, and hoped tlicy would come in large numbers despite the entente with Britain. LONDON, March 25. The Times warns the Khedive that, he had better display his devotion to ins country by not- permitting favouritism or corruption to be rife in the public departments that aro under his control.

Referring lo tho statement made by llio KgJ'pfia-n Nationalist, .Mlustapha Kamcl Pasha, to certain newspapers, Dr George Samno publishes an interesting article in tho Dcpcchc Colonia'c, in which ho says tliat ho does not believe that the Egyptians have nny interest, in adopting the rigorous anti-English policy advocated by that would-bo reformer. lie speaks of the small number of Egyptian Nationalists, and of the profound indilToronce to politics which is' tlin predominant feature of public sentiment, in Egypt, ■ attributing that indifference to the satisfaction of tiiu fellah with, the. present regime. The fellaheen arc in such a majority, lie adds, that no liberal movement is possible without their co-operation, which they are very far from being disposed to give to Mustapha Kanwl. Tho Egyptian Nationalist agitator complained that Egyptian native talent was not employed by tho English, Dr Samno replies that no other suzerain nation would have been as discrcct as England, and lie substantiates this assertion by facts. Further on, the French writer Gays that the wealth of Egypt has its origin in the cooperation of European capital, which took the road to Egypt simply because England guaranteed its security. Therefore, lie argues, every Egyptian who takes part in tho campaign of the Nationalist party and works for tho expulsion of British control takes up a position entirely hostile to tho .material interests of his country. In case Mustapha K.imcl and his partisans were to bo successful, he predicts a fatal dcbaclo for, Egypt-, "From Mustapha, Kamel's policy it. is evident that- the Egyptian Nationalist party is almost inclined to prefer the suzerainty of tiio Sultan to that of England. It is, therefore, not to the emancipation of Egypt that the programme of this party would lend, but to a positively disastrous eubjection."