ENGLAND'S GOOD WORK IN EGYPT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6134, 22 March 1898, Page 4

ENGLAND'S GOOD WORK IN EGYPT.

■ •. ■« — The Hon. Frederick .0. Penfield, late United States diplomatic agent in Egypt, ■writes, an article in the North American Review, which is interesting. He says :— "Are the people of Egypt materially benefited by English rule ? Unquestionably ' they are. Unpopular as it is with nearly every class in Egypt, and condemned ihxougliout Europe, the occupation has done vast good. No fair investigator can witness the present condition of the Egyptian fellaheen, knowing what it was before the advent of the English, without conceding this. For half a dozen years Egypt has fairly bristled with prosperity. The story •of that country's emergence from practical bankruptcy, until its securities are quoted nearly as high as English consols, reads like a romance ; and there is no better example of economical progress, through administrative reform, than is presented by Egypt under British rule. England possesses a capacity for conducting colonies, and rehabilitating exhausted countries, which amounts to genius. Overbearing and arrogant as the British functionary out of England often appears, he, must be scrupulously honest and capable. "Is Egypt capable of self-government? The candour prompting one who has made a long and disinterested study of Egyptian matters in the country itself to say that England has performed her self-appointed task in Egypt better than any other nation could, likewise compels one to state that Egypt is not capable of complete selfgovernment at the present time, for she has no class of officials trained in the higher ranges of administrative work. Certainly no other nation should ever be permitted to supplant the English as administrators or ' occupiers ' of Egypt." His comments upon the fact that we have not forced our language upon the Egyptians are rather curious. He says: — "The administrative blunder of the English in not bringing in their language with their intelligent reforms is half responsible for the unpopularity of the occupation, whose benefits would surely be obliterated and forgotten six months after the departureof thelast Britishf unctionary. This is one of the best reasons given by Englishmen why the occupation should not be terminated, and any member of the socalled National Parby in Egypt, if asked for his opinion, would assert that the omission to introduce the English language into this country was a triumph. o£ stagecraft, and not a blunder thereof." In 'the close of the article Mr Penfield says 1 : — "It is no reckless hazard, however, to predict that a dozen years hence all that portion of the Nile Valley extending from the Mediterranean to Khartoum will be British soil. If so, Arabi Pasha should be liberated from his exile in Ceylon, and hailed as one of the makers of England's proud Empire."