The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1906. AN UNGRATEFUL PEOPLE.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 13145, 29 November 1906, Page 4

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1906. AN UNGRATEFUL PEOPLE.

j The recrudescence* of auti-Britistt feeling in I as reported in to-day's' caMe news, te&fls on a serious aspect from the jfntniours construing tlie loyalty «.f tho Khedive. A few months ;igo, whwi Turkey stimulated unrest by an infringement of the Egyptian frontier;, and retired wujy in face o»f a British irltimatum. there was no hint that suspicion attached to .the'good- faith of tlie Khedive who, a.* the, "-Times" remind* us, owes his position and. huv prosperity to British troops and British, administration. The campaigns that wore oudertakom by Great Britain in order to secure to« Egypt and tot the Soudan th«' ble«*ingsof peace and order are too fisosh in the minds of the present generation, to require recapitulation. The administrative benefits which have' boon conferred' upon itfieKhedive's kingdom; by distinguished Eng- . lishmen, with Lonl Cromer ,ot t-hoiu head, are no less real than the good. results achieved by the military experts wHmrc the valley of the Nile lias borrowed frftim the little country in the North Soa. And yet, as fur as one can see, the EgyptiiUw are' eager to discard the jieople who havfec o<Mlferred so imiany blessings upon them. JJiot that they are blind to the advantages-' ! which have followed in the train of. iii& I British, for the better class at loai\t is able* ; to appreciate the difference, between thfli state of Egypt to-day and what obtained 1 , twenty years ago. Proof of this is'-to* ba found in a remarkable anonymous letter; /received by Lord Cromer at the height of! the.-'frontier crisis in the earlier part of/ thw year and quoted by him in a Whites jPaper published last July. The writers, who was obviously a man of considerable* cultivation, called Lord Cromer the " former of Egypt," because, as he said,"By thin name j r ou are known between the', seas and the desert; also many, but;".' 'not all, of the English who have served* under yon have followed in your ■'steps." The anonymous correspondent • then proceeded to elaborate upon, the beneifits which Egypt has derived from British rule. "He,must be blind," he wrote, sees riot what the English have wrought in Egypt;, the gates of justice stand open' to the poor; streams flow through the land and are not stopped, at the order of the strong? the poor matx is lifted r -aj> and the rich man. pulled down; the hand of the oppressor and the briber,is struck -when outstretched to do evil!, Oui! eyes see these things, and we know from whom they come." Ai.d yet even the Egyptian who thus fully realises what he and" his country owe to Britain, and who known what it would <moan, if Turkish rule were re-established in the valley, of the Nile; confesses that in the evejit of a Pan-Islamic rising, the swords of '' the Egyptians would, be turned against "then? saviours "Asiinen we do not lpveitH*sons of- ©smaii," wiote Lord Croraetf's, oories,pond«it. *"The children at' the breast know their work's, and that they have • trodden down the Egyptiani? like dry peed«. But as Moslem* they are our, brethren ;. the Ktoalif holds the sacred places tod l iH» noble relia*. Though the Khalif 'mfA hapless*- «b Bayzid, cruel as, Hurad, yOr mad as' Ibrahim, he is the shadow of Qod, and evwiy Moslem must leap op at Ms call as- the willing servant to iuft master, though the wolf may devour hi.i child while he doew his master's work. The call of the 1 StfUan is the, call of the Ptdth'; ' it ca,irie> with it the command of the phet. If there be war, bo pure that jpe who boss a swoid will draw it, he who Iws n club nill shike with it." The 'bvious comment upon such, inconsistency did not escape the writer 'of the letter. "Ytu «i]l My," he added, "that the Egypt Us is more ungrateful tftau u dog, which remember."'the hund that'fed him. He is 'foolish as the madman who pulls down the roof-tree of his hou-e upon himself."' Awl, his explanation, or his excuse, is founded <,n his ie(igion. '"ln theitime of danger to Islam," he wrote, "(the Moslem turns away from the' tilings of tttp world, and thhsts oifly for the Nervice of his faith, even though he looks/'in the* facetiof death." Unfortunately this Islamic fanaticism iv fanned by a section of the. Egyptian Press which is 'apparently about to recbiye another addition to its • J dangeious ranks. In the White Book' \ from* "which we have 'been ■ quoting, Lord I Cromer also dealt with this question of f the. disaffected journals, the tendency of" ' which hai-i been to inflame Moslem senti-'? ' raynt against Christians «md Europeans, ard, \ to appeal to religious rancour of the worst Rind. .Such writings, he says, have leen ancouraged "by many persons occupying., very high positions inside and Egypt," and he has on two .occasions been urged by the Egyptian General JSgmok&y.to adopt repra-isive measures towards jAlie offending, (section of the Press. , He gives. hi*' reasons for disregarding ttiafe advice,. in the following extract :~"tii 'tft» jjfcriß, pl.'jcc. L Ihmk 'W .present {^ov«^riaeifc' in* ' Kns pt ought to be, and is, quite Etpoog" enough to stand on its own mentoy. Wfttto. neglect the' ravings of; the' iHW-Islontto" Press." In the second pjace, dt|« sttmQf advocate of the general principle that, tit* Picss should be free, I'jfeuifc that' Any ' Government is infrifnging 4fc&i imtoOiple tf, it bugivp to pick and cljoojw thoiie new-papers of which it appr»W Arid- tfeose of which it disapproves. Thfa> fWwA*)* l * in le&pect to the whoje. Europeaft Tm» and to a oon&iderable section of th* vernacular Pr&% is (< I consider, «a tifttplfo V •unmixed blessing*to **^*" t ' should be eorry tp haw even,the ttnee of threatening- -i*. w It a&ty JpPPf* ,' that Lord Cromer .will be obJlgdd' ft> '«ia''■ ,'' sider the institution of, e<u»e t censorship if the propagaada it, prosecuted vigorously, ibusi it< if* toffo ,* hoped tLat the clouds which art now lowering will blow away without the necessity, for a resort' to any draMio measures., , _ '