The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1920. THE FUTURE OF EGYPT.

Timaru Herald, Issue 170307, 30 August 1920, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1920. THE FUTURE OF EGYPT.

The old reward of tlie "White Man's Burden," "tlie blame of those je better, tlie liate of those ye guard," has fallen to the Bri- ' tish in Egypt. It will be sur- ! prising, however, if British control is abandoned so immediately or so _ completely as the Milner Commission, according- to an accepted forecast of its report, is ready to recommend. The average Egyptian might be most startled and alarmed if he were told that Egypt's expressed desire for independence and the flattering- position of a sovereign State would receive such liberal recog- ; nition that the country would be left to its own resources;, with- x

out auy helping hand. Eventual self-government has always been ilie-object of tlie .Uritisli aduimisbut it is only a minute proportion of the. native people, and those less Egyptians tiian .lurks, who liave siiown yet any fitness for the role. British control has raised the felalieen, or native peasants, aylio form the majority of the population, from the lowest state of poverty and oppression to one of well-be-. mg and quite recent contentment. If. has given such prosperity to the country as for a tliousand years it had not known. It lias made the student c-lass, wliich is now more discontented than any other. After-war conditions have caused some economic grievances which the Nationalist politicians have not failed to exploit in their efforts to pervert the felalieen. but that has happened ia every countrv. It "s certain that if Egypt has to rule itself the felalieen will not do much of tlie ruling, and what they can expect from native officials was shown wiien those did the recruiting" for the Labour Corps in war time, and fleeced and oppressed tlie hapless peasantry as 'eastern, and especially Turkish tax-gatherers and recruiting- agents have done since the beginning of their power. Restored to the tender mercies of ! this class, the last state of the , real Egyptian people would mosc certainly be worse than the first. The Egyptian does not want' the Uritisli to rule him. He insists ou that, but he adds, usually, when lie is pressed, thai he does want British protection, tiiat he would not like to see his own officials given a free liaud to collect tiie taxes, and lie thinks there should be foreigners, of whom he prefers the British, iu aU the principal It is hard to see how a native class which has had next to no experience is to safeguard the foreign relations of a country in which the foreign interests are both larger and more complex than in almost any olher. Yet Egypt, according- to the forecast that has been given of Lord Milner's report, will control its own foreign relations, and appoint its own diplomatic representatives. The Egyptian National Assembly, which, as well as the British Government, has yet to approve of these recommendations, • may wed pray to be delivered from fiueh a responsibility. But 110 doubt the .Jluner plan provides for safeguards which are not included in the drastic summary. Another report states that Egyptis' to be given independence and self-government " under. British influence," and that influence, we can imagine, will be. very direct ]y exerted for a number of years to come. The Egyptians have not reached the stage, when they c-au do without a guiding hand. Their desire for self-government of a modern kind, so far as it is genuine, is the greatest compliment to British rule, which has transformed the fellah from a slave into a man aud given to the student class all the ideas of civilised government that they possess. " It would be hard, however, it', after ail the benefits which British rule has wrought for Egypt, its people should have soon a real grievance aga; nsr, their benefactors in the total withdrawal of assistance wliich, whatever may be said by a few agitators, self-seeking- or made blind by their enthusiasm, and those whom they impress too easilv. they still need.