LORD CROMER ON EGYPT. T HE address which Lord Cromer delivered
to the Eighty Club on Tuesday was notable for its lucidity, its common-sense, and, we would add, for its simplicity. Lord Cromer's ratiocination always carries the mind along at such an easy gait that we cannot hesitate to take the next step, for we have complete confidence that it will be on firm ground, otherwise Lord Cromer would not ask us to tread there. We often find ourselves wondering what kind of natural perversity it is in some people who see in Lord Cromer's singular combination of the love of progress and the generalship which insists on making good the ground already won before venturing farther merely an antipathy to nationalistic aspirations. It is only Lord Cromer's acute sense of responsibility which restrains his anxiety to see Egypt put in possession of the Constitutional powers which the Nationalists demand. We would even go so far as to say that Lord Cromer's eager description of what Egypt may hope for some day is rather in danger of being misunderstood by Egyptian Nationalists,—of being taken as a kind of guarantee that British statesmen are con- templating definite concessions for which, as Lord Cromer himself admitted, the Egyptians have not yet proved their fitness in any way. We will return to that point presently. It was a happy thought of the Eighty Club to ask Lord. Cromer to deliveir this address (which, by the way, we are very glad to see is to be published as a pamphlet by Messrs. Macmillan), and an act of wisdom in Lord Cromer to consent to do it. The time was opportune, because the wave of political dissatisfaction which has swept over Turkey, India, and Persia has rather complicated the issue of Nationalism in Egypt for the minds of ordinary men. It has made them ask why what we all approve in Turkey and Persia should not be geed also in Egypt. That is a very natural question ; but it is easy to answer that of course Constitutionalism is good also in Egypt only if One has forgotten the facts of the Egyptian situation. It was those which Lord Cromer once more stated with incomparable clearness.
• The growth of Nationalism in Egypt was not denied or underestimated by Lord Cromer. " Close observers of Eastern affairs," he said, "have for long predicted that association with Europe would eventually cause the bond of nationality to be substituted for that of religion, which has, up to the present time, kept Eastern societies together. Symptoms are not wanting to show that the East has at last 'awoke from its long lethargy, and that this transformation of thought has begun." But how are all the mixed inhabitants of the Valley of the Nile to be associated in the government of the land they inhabit ? Egyptian affairs are often discussed as though the opinions of Egyptians and of the United Kingdom had alone to be consulted. This is a cardinal, though an obvious, mistake. Not only does Egypt still form part of the Oetoinan Empire (in spite of the curious and significant cooling off of the ardour of Egyptian Nationalists for the Turkish attachment directly Turkey declared herself a Constitu- tional country), but according to the law of Europe, Britain in • dealing with Egypt stands on a footing of absolute equality with sixteen other Powers. And this equality is not a diplomatic fiction. It is a very important reality. It is owing to this legal status of equality that the Capitulations cannot be modified without the consent of every European Power. The Capitulations, which prevent any important law from being made applicable to foreign subjects without the consent of all the Powers, spread their blight over all natural progress in Egypt. It is unnecessary to re-examine this familiar check on advancement, which Lord Salisbury once compared with the old liberum veto of the Polish Diet, without the advantage of being able to cut off the dissentient's bead. It is enough to give the words in which Lord Cromer summarises the political conditions under the .Capitula- tions :—" When people talk of an Egyptian Constitution, or of an Egyptian Parliament which will have a right to tax Egyptians, or to make laws for Egyptians, any such institution, unless its attributes and composition have received the unanimous consent of all the Powers, will have no power to tax all the dwellers in Egypt, and, moreover,, will be precluded front taking action in all the more important spheres of legislative activity." For it must be remembered that the people of Egypt will not be turned into a single and homogeneous race by the magic act of calling them " Egyptians "; they are Greeks, Italians, and Frenchmen as well as natives. To quote Lord Cromer again :—" To speak of Parliamentary government when Parliament cannot exercise any authority over that section of the population which, though relatively small in number, is, in respect to its wealth, intelligence, spirit of enterprise, and influence, the most important in the country, is merely to delude oneself with words. Once show me a prospect that an Egyptian Constitution can be created which will truly represent the views and interests of all 'the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, whether European. African, or Asiatic, whether Christian or Moslem—one which will inspire the confidence of Europe and of all the dwellers in Egypt of whatsoever race and creed—one which will maintain the reasonable rights of the Khedive, whose very difficult position in connexion with all these matters should be sympathetically .recog- nised—one also which will safeguard the legitimate rights of Turkey—then, I say, I shall at once become an ardent Egyptian Constitutionalist." Those sentences express a vast, if not a prohibitive, obstacle in the way of a Perlin.- nientary regime in Egypt; yet, strange to say, it is commonly left out of account altogether by those who indulge in amiable visions for Egypt without troubling to inform themselves very precisely how they are to be realised. At, present., as Lord Cromer remarked, Egypt is in the position. Birmingham or York would be in if its municipality could' not make a, new road without applying for leave to Paris, Rome, and every other capital in Europe.
We have mentioned the European obstacles in the way of Constitutionalism in Egypt, but have said little of those among the Egyptians themselves. A country which has even a bare chance of governing itself well must at least show an earnest desire to do so. Ability must be proved later, but the desire must be there from the beginning. What e is there of this desire ? The elections to the existing Provincial Councils, which in their turn send members to the Legislativ ) Council, ought to give some indication. Lord Cromer says :—" There are in Cairo a hundred and thirty-four thousand male adult Egyptians who are entitled to vote. At the last election only thirty- four thousand of these took the trouble to register them- selves. and of these only fifteen hundred, or Fl per cent. of the total number who might have qualified, voted. moue of the thirteen districts into which the town of Cairo is divided no election took place, owing to the fact that there were no candidates, and that none of the electors put in an appearance during the whole day. At Alexandria, with an adult male Egyptian population of seventy thousand, only fourteen thousand electors are, registered, and of these only seven hundred and fifty took part in the last election. The same experience was repeated elsewhere. Indeed, in many places it appears that it was only through the. energetic action taken by the local authorities, aided by.the village policeman, that any one was induced to vote "atall." It is surely obvious that there must be two preliminaries to Constitutionalism in Egypt; one is the successful working of the Provincial Councils (which in their expanded form will soon be at once a school and a, test), and the other is a successful attempt by the Egyptian Nationalists to associate European residents—French, Greeks, Italians, or whoever they may be—with them in this work of self-government. The Capitulations will never be renioved, and Egypt will never become in any real sense a nation, till all the Powers of Europe are satisfied that their nationals and their interests will be as safe under Egyptian rule as they are under British administration to-day. They will expect assurances and. representations on this point from their nationals. Yet, incredible though it seems, the Egyptian Nationalists make practically no effort to *enlist foreigners on their side. They remind them that they are foreigners, instead of trying to draw them gently into a common national life. '
It may be said :—" But why should not Egypt be left to govern herself in her own way ? If she cannot create a Parliamentary model because that is alien to her instincts, why should she not still be free to live according to her inclinations and her lights ? " The answer is simple and brief. To do that would be to allow Egypt to return to despotism and misery. If Lord Cromer can make one claim more justly than another, it is that he helped thepoor people of Egypt. He helped them as against the more nimble-witted and educated class, who were very well able to look after themselves and their pockets. It would be an inhuman dereliction of our duty in the world to, sacrifice the poor Egyptians, to allow them to become once more the prey of extortioners and bullies. That is our sincere opinion, and we are prepared to stand by it against any plan for sacrificing them, however much that plan might be disguised by political sentimentalism, or however uncon- scious its authors might be of the cruelty they proposed.. There might conceivably be a benevolent despotism for a. short time, it is true; but just as the Americanproverb about acquired wealth says "from shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves in three generations," so, we are 9,pre, woirld it be a case of passing back to the bad old sort of tyranny in Egypt. in about. the same time, if not sooner. The people of Egypt have now a direct appeal to the British officials. Their habit of petitioning is no empty form. Grievances are examined and remedied as quickly as pogsible, and the people wpll. know that this is so. . It may be, as some pessimists think, that the Egyptian will never qualify for Parliamentary government. His mind works differently from ours, and it is thought that one might as well invite a horse to become a lion. In any case, we are certain that it will be a long time before Britain can honestly leave Egyptians to their own devices. It is because we are sure of that that we fear lest Egyptian Nationalists should think any of Lord Cromer's generous words are an encouragement whica ought naturally to be followed rapidly by the establish- ment of a Constitutional Government. The chief defect of the Proclamation which Queen Victoria issued when the Crown took over the Government of India from the old Company was that it employed vague images which Indians have been able to quote ever since as a sort of promise of the gift of self-govern- ment. Frankly, we regard the future fitness of the Egyptians for Constitutional government as an open question. There is no analogy between one country and any other ; the Young Turks have acted with singular coolness and wisdom, the• Egyptian Nationalists never have; and similarly we might go on and demonstrate that there is no possible comparison between Persia (whatever one may think of the prospects of Constitu- tionalism there) and Egypt, or between India and Egypt, because of their fundamental differences in personal character and the difference in their obligations to other Powers. Englishmen have that habit of mind which postulates Parliamentary government. We say honestly that we would rather live under a bad democracy in Britain with the continual hope of improvement than under a good autocracy. But then Britain is peopled by men of Western race, and men who believe in and desire free institutions. Nothing we have said can be taken as a symptom of a wavering democratic faith. But we refuse to bow the knee in the temple of any universal formula, or to admit that because Constitutionalism agrees with white men, it must therefore agree with those of a totally different race.
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