SIR ELDON GORST.

Southland Times, Issue 16786, 14 July 1911, Page 4

SIR ELDON GORST.

Sir Eldon Gorst, whose death was reported by cable yesterday, did not have a long nor a very successful reign in Egypt, but his record as British representative in that country will probably be of great service to the Empire as proving conclusively that with coloured nations in a backward state a policy of concession and conciliation is inevitably a policy of failure. When Sir Eldon Gorsc succeeded Lord Cromer as the administrator of Egypt he introduced new methods. He sought to show that the British Government was in sympathy with the aspirations of the Egyptians towards self-government, and wished to assist them in every possible way to qualify* for the administration of their own country. Sir Eldon Gorst found, as other men similarly placed have found in India and in Africa, that expressions of sympathy and of desire to assist are construed by coloured peoples into an admission of weakness. In referring to the failure of his methods to attain success Sir Eldon Gorst himself wrote:— "In my view’ the principal a n/! sufficient reason has been that from first to last the adoption of this policy [of introducing Liberal principles into the government of Egypt] has been attributed both by the Egyptians and by the local European colonies to weakness, to an attempt to pacify the nationalist agitation by ill-timed concessions, and to an intentional diminution of British authority. It is not my purpose here to dwell upon the manifest absurdity of this legend, which has been Industriously circulated by many whose motives are not above suspicion. But there is no doubt that the motives of our action in endeavouring to meet the reasonable desires of the Egyptians, coupled with our traditional policy of keeping British control us far as possible In the background, were misinterpreted, and led to tho erroneous impression that the aspirations of those who are in favour of the immediate establishment of full representative government would be furthered by an agitation directed against the British occupation. Tflis being the chief cause why our recent policy has not produced the results which might otherwise have reasonably been anticipated from it, the course for the immediate future is fairly simple and obvious. We have to make the Egyptians understand that his Majesty’s Government do not intend to allow themselves to be hustled into going farther or faster in the direction of self-government than they consider to he in the interests of the Egyptian people as s whole." Sir Eldon Gorst discovered for himself in Egypt, and his administration demonstrated to others, that the only sound and safe policy in the government of coloured peoples is the policy, of the strong hand. Any concession, any overture, any indulgence which Is made or granted prematurely is invariably interpreted to indicate weaknessness and fear, and leads to a loss of respect and the weakening oI authority. The policy which Sir Eldon Gorst attempted to introduce in Egypt did no kindness or service to tha Egyptian people. It did not hasten by one day the time when they will be able to control their own affairs, but on the other hand it incited them to disrespect and even to sedition. It tended to bring British rule into contempt as a weak and timid thing which could be shaken off by on

effort. Sir Eldon Gorst was an able man and a conscientious servant of the Empire, and though he did not enjoy the satisfaction of seeing success follow his Egyptian experiment, he rendered a useful service to the Empire by giving Liberal statesmen an object lesson in the fallacies and futility of concession in the administration of the affairs of dark races.