278 British Occupation of Egypt nom de plume of Scrutator,' in a controversy in the Times, on behalf of France, with Professor Max Müller, the most chivalrous antagonist with whom I ever crossed pens. My letters were afterwards expanded into a volume, and passed through several editions in a French translation. When my name came out as the author of Who is Responsible for the War?' I received the thanks of the French Government through the Duc de Broglie, then Ambassador in London; and I have received many kindnesses in France at different times since then. With these credentials, I think I may claim to speak my mind quite frankly on the Egyptian question without being suspected of any but the most friendly feelings towards France. Let our good friends and neighbours, then, look facts fairly in the face. They declined our invitation to join us in restoring order in Egypt, ▾ and thereby with their own hands put an end to the condominium. That is the view which the French themselves took of it at the time; and it is notorious that they were surprised when, after the collapse of the rebellion, the British Government invited them back. For my own part, I think that the invitation was a mistake. France would have acquiesced more readily in a friendly notice to quit at that time-for which, indeed, she was fully prepared-than in an invitation to return on any other terms than the status quo ante. paralleled by French Occupation of Tunis 279 That is the first fact which our French friends ought to take into their consideration. The next is, that we are in Egypt on much the same terms on which Austria is in Bosnia, and with quite as good a title as France is in Tunis. Our promises to leave Egypt are not more explicit— are they as explicit ?-as the promises of France to leave Tunis and not to fortify Biserta. Yet France has practically annexed Tunis, as she has annexed Madagascar, without any menaces or reproaches from England, which has not even remonstrated against the fortification of Biserta. Now Britons who, like myself, earnestly desire unbroken friendship with France, have a right to feel aggrieved at the very different measures of justice which France metes out to us and to herself. Yet I have no wish to see France evacuate Tunis; on the contrary, I hold that her abandonment of Tunis would be a crime against civilisation. But let France be just, and admit that our abandonment of Egypt would be not the less a crime against civilisation. To restore to Musulman rule any country once emancipated would be a wrong and a cruelty against humanity. I have spent two winters on the Nile, and have seen the wilderness blossom as the rose' under our benign sway, while justice and prosperity and happiness prevail where anarchy and cruelty were rampant. It warms one's blood to see British officers, well educated and brought up 280 Relapse of Egypt under Islamic Rule delicately, working hard among regiments of natives, whom they have not only trained into good soldiers, but whose confidence and affection they have won. What would happen if we were to leave Egypt? Within a year our reforms would be a thing of the past. The automatic law of Islâm would gradually, but surely, resume its sway, and the last state would be worse than the first. I have written the preceding pages in vain if I have failed to prove that a Musulman ruler is, under the theocratic law of Islâm which dominates the civil as well as the spiritual sphere, powerless to do justice to his nonMusulman subjects, or to guarantee reforms which are contrary to the Sacred Law of Islâm. Hence the fallacy of our promises to leave Egypt when we have placed our reforms on a stable footing. Practically, that is to postpone our departure to the Greek Kalends; for our reforms, which are largely opposed to the Koranic law, can never be put on a stable footing while a Musulman, ruling independently, is at the top. But why not place Egypt under the control of the Great Powers? To which I reply, God save Egypt from the Concert of Europe, after the exhibition which it has made of itself in Turkey during the last fifty years! Even M. Hanotaux deprecated, with something like alarm, the idea of putting Turkey under any form of condo minium. What is the French Solution? 281 We may therefore dismiss European control as impracticable. What guarantee, then, does France suggest against the relapse of Egypt into its former condition on the cessation of the British occupation? I see only one alternative to the British occupation-the creation of Egypt into an autonomous State under a Christian Prince, for whose independence the Great Powers should make themselves conjointly responsible. That might solve the difficulty; but I can think of no other solution outside the present arrangement. Let France produce her case in the dry light of reason and of facts, that we may examine it. This country, I presume, would have no objection to the neutralisation of the Suez Canal, for I do not suppose that any British Government would be so rash as to make use for military purposes of a canal which could so easily be blocked for weeks by the sinking of a steamer. I suppose that most naval officers who have examined the subject would agree with Lord Charles Beresford on that point. And the difference in point of time between the Suez Canal and the Cape route is so small that it would not be worth while to run any risk. The Suez Canal therefore presents no difficulty to a friendly understanding with France or Russia. From a military point of view our occupation of Egypt is a serious embarrassment to us. It deprives us of the advantage of our insular posi 282 The Dongola Expedition tion, and might subject us to the humiliation of scuttling out of it in an undignified manner in case of troubles elsewhere, as France was forced to leave Rome hurriedly in 1870. But there we are, and I do not see how we can go till we have provided an efficient substitute. I am afraid I differ from most Liberals in being in favour of the Dongola expedition. The patient and industrious peasantry of Egypt suffered cruelly from the tyrannical domination of the Dervishes, and I sympathise with them as I do with the Armenians, though their skin is dark and their creed is Islâm. To break the power of the Dervishes is surely a service to humanity and civilisation. Mr. John Morley thinks that facts have refuted the two reasons given for the expedition to Dongola, namely, the relief of Kasala and the insecurity of the Egyptian frontier. Yet even so, I should hold the expedition justified by the recovery of a rich province from Dervish misrule. Nevertheless, I believe that there is more in the two reasons given for the expedition than Mr. Morley admits. The danger to Kasala after the disaster of Adowa is not disproved by Italy's subsequent half-formed intention of evacuating the place. I was in Rome at the time, and can testify that the danger was believed by the Italian Ministry to be a very real one. An attack on Kasala by the whole Dervish force at that critical moment might have succeeded, with the result of the |