THE ENGLISH IN EGYPT,

Otago Witness, Issue 1894, 22 May 1890, Page 31

THE ENGLISH IN EGYPT,

By Halkett-Dawson, M.A., FS.S, F R.G.S. We are in Egypt. Few realise the fact, but fact it is. The French see it better than many of us, I believe. Conservatives in England in the somewhat restricted circles of officialdom are fully alive to the exact position of affairs. Outside this circle there is a suspicion among the educated classes that we have the land of the Pharaohs in our keeping. But the general taxpayer knows little beyond the bare fact that we have on the Nile a small army of occupation. Little does he know that high English officials control the exchequer, accounts, customs, public works, prisons, sanitary department, police, and lighthouses. The com mander-in-chief of the army and his 60 or 70 officers constitute but an insignificant, albeit an all-important, department, for on their presence depends the carrying out of the various beneficial reforms inaugurated by the other departments. Doubtless the small military force is the most conspicuous feature — the one that fixes the ordinary public imagination most ; but to the friend of Egypt, to the person interested in the question of the future of this magnificent and wonderful country, it is not the army but the work of the other departments that must ever be most interesting. The Radical asks when we are to withdraw our troops ; the Frenchman all but demands withdrawal. Let us see what this means. Suppose the last soldier in the citadel of Cairo had embarked at Ismailia or Alexandria, and what then ? What about the conducting the various departments in which reforms have been achieved and others are in progress? Why, reform would be at an end. Even if the high officials were to remain in the various departments there would be no guarantee that their efforts would be successful, or that the reforms they inaugurated would be carried out. This is an aspect of the question that in purposely overlooked. For Egypt's good the English are masters on the banks of the Nile. If it is asked why should we have such a task on our hands, seeing we have Ireland and India and many other place? to look after sufficient to engage all our best energies, we can only say that special sets of circums'ances have brought about the occupation — one thing leading to another — till at last we cannot honourably withdraw. I will go further, and say that for Egypt's sake and for our own dignity and safety we cannot withdraw. Frenchmen are exceedingly annoyed at the turn of affairs. During the present century, and particularly in the days of the long and successful reign of Mahommed Ali, Frenchmen acquired powerful interests on the Nile. You find French merchants, tradesmen, and officials everywhere from directors of museums down to pilots and dredgermen on the canal. They outnumber our countrymen by perhaps six to one. They are naturally aggrieved at the turn of affairs. Yet they have themselves to blame. By a deliberate vote of their Assembly they would have nothing to do with the English proposal for a joint demonstration to put down the rebellion of Arabi. It was Gambetta's policy to run in harness with us in Egypt. But Gambetta lost power, and his successor appears to have opposed whatever his predecessor went in for. Speaking to a French politician at .Florence, I was told that when Gambetta heard of the vote by which the English were left to fight single-handed he burst into tears. He had made a great speech in favour of the English proposal, and had then left the House in a state of the greatest anxiety and distress. Had he lived, France would have remembered his memorable Hpeech that evening. The jealousy of France will not turn us aside from goiug on with the noble work we have commenced at Cairo. Seven years for such a purpose as we have in Egypt is a short enough space of time to do much, much less to generalise about it. Nevertheless, the results of seven years' occupation have been brilliant beyond expectation, and from these results, accomplished in so short a time, I may safely draw certain conclusions. Well, what have we done ? I spoke to scores of fellaheen, I spoke to many artisans and traders in Cairo, and the story was in every case the same. The English had done good — more good than they could possibly have thought possible. Several who took part in the Arabic insurrection told me they now see the folly of the movement — truly enough named national. They admit that purely national ideas could never have saved or regenerated Egypt. Such a state of feeling in Egypt shows that the reforms achieved have been considerable. These are well summarised by a writer in the January number of the Edinburgh Review, aud to this really able article I would direct my readers for further information than I can give in the space at my command. It will suffice to say that we have abolished the bastinado. The poor fallaheen are no longer subjected to the cow-leash because they cannot pay their taxes, or give evidence, false or true, as desired by the authorities. Then corvee, or forced labour, has been partially done away with. From 1882 to 1885 nearly a quarter of a million of men were compelled to work one hundred days for nothing. Another capital reform is the abolition of the slave mart. In vain the curious traveller may search for a human auction mart now. No eunuchs are now offered for sale ; no kidnapped Soudanese children are put up to the highest bidder. A few slaves there are still, but they can get their freedom by going to the manumission bureaux. The lot of the poor fellaheen has been very much improved by converting them in many cases into absolute owners of their patch of ground, which they cultivate with so much care and industry. Again, life is now quite safe. Brigandage has been put down by a thoroughly efficient and obliging police force. One can go anywhere now in perfect safety. Qairo gains by this; in fact, the whole couptry gains by it. Crowds of Europeans now winter in Egypt. Cook's agept at Ismailia told me as I came through the Suez Canal in March that the number of tourists this season had been unprecedented ; and they will go in increasing numbers every year now. In five days the Londoner can go to Cairo. Great reforms have been effected in prisons, hospitals, and lunatic asylums. The railways are made more remunerative. Water distribution is more effectively carried out. The public finance has been put on a sound basis. Expenditure is no longer in excess of receipts. Six years ago Egypt could borrow with difficulty at 7 per cfnt. ; now she can borrow nearly as well as the Government of New Zealand. If one had bought Unifieds in 1884 at 69, one could now sell out at a profit of £25, for they now command 94 That ia good work for seven years. My readers will begin to thiDk that we have been very much iv Egypt. What is more, we have fully justified our occupation. And our further tenure is justified on three distinct grounds: (1) We cannot leave off now and allow the fruits of cur labours to be destroyed ; (2) there is still much good work to be done ; and (3) Egypt's position is such that without the justification, past and future, alluded to, we must hold it. As to the work still before as, the great questions of the administration of justice and education remain in native hands. '

Need I Bay both are unsatisfactory. Many of the native tribunals are presided over by men who have had do proper legal training. Moreover, there is much extortion and corruption. As for education, unless we take up this subject and train the young Egyptians, we indefinitely postpone the proper regeneration of the country. Hitherto it may have been advisable to stay our hands respecting these two departments, for around at least one c f them there is a circle of much prejudice in the Mohammedan mind. But now that they see our good works in other things they may take more readily to Western ideas and Western methods of education. How backward their system of education is I gathered from a visit to the great Moslem University at Cairo — Gami-el-cizhar. As for primary education, as we understand it in New Zealand, it simply does not exist. But this is just what Egypt wants. It has been truly said that the purse draws power after it ; it may be as truly said that knowledge is power. The fallaheen require knowledge ; when they get it power will also come to them. Altogether we have a very strong case for our position in Egypt. We have done good work, and we have still much good work to do. We have restored peace; order has been upheld; corruption in high places has been checked ; fiuancial equilibrium has taken the place of financial disorder. Our successful financing ha? enabled us to make a commencement in emitting taxes which have presped heavily on the fellaheen. But this is far from all the good we have done. Owing largely to certain actions taken by England, Egypt has for several years been exposed to terrible dangers from the Upper Nile. During last year the forces of the Khedive, generated and aided by English officers and troops, have twice had to roll back the advancing tide of " an organisation of fanaticism and slave hunting." Without our officers and troops that fanatical advance could not have been successfully stopped ; and it is a mistake to suppose these dangers are past, for the Mahdi is still strong, and were we to evacuate Lower Egypt there is no saying what disorder would immediately arise. But evacuation is quite out of the question, and so I end by saying what I said at the beginning — we are in Egypt.