EGYPT IN TRANSITION.* FEW English writers who are accustomed to

travel and record their experiences in books combine no well as Mr. Sidney Low. a light and easy touch that makes for extreme readableness

• Egypt in Treneon. Ity Sidney Low. With an Introdoetion by the Earl a Cromer. 44.0.8., &v. With Portrattt. Loudon smith, Elder, sad Co.

with a very serious interest in affairs. Reversing the

usual order of travellers' narratives about Egypt, Mr. Low begins with the Sudan and ends with the Nile Delta. His book has the advantage of an introduction by Lord Cromer, whose comments constitute in brief the whole gospel of

wisdom in administering a non-self-governing country. If a

Turkish official who presides over some oppressed and bank- rupt province were only to grasp the spirit and principles of these twelve pages, and act on them, he could dispense with all other maxims of governunce. He Could undoubtedly create out of the wreckage—provided, of course, that the conntry had resources—a prosperous community and a continually grow- ing revenue. It seems so simple—yet we know that it probably will never happen! The Sudanese officials have been chosen with extraordinary care, and have then been left to manage the country without interference from London.

Men of character and good physique have been preferred to men whose qualifications are mainly academic. "Personally,"

says Lord Cromer, "I regard anything in the nature of

jobbing these appointments as little short of criminal." The pay is good, on the principle that every really capable man not only earns his salary, but ought tote pot above the temptations caused by financial anxieties. Ample leave, again, is allowed, on the principle that a man becomes stale in the Sudanese climate if he stays too long, and that the intellectually freshening influence of contact with the outside world is as necessary as physical recreation. Mr. Low notes the visible proofs of the

success of these methods—the health and the enthusiasm of the officials, who make a hobby of their work. There are no slackers in the Sudanese service.

We must quote Lord Cromer's tribute to Lord Salisbury in his account of how the Anglo-Egyptian condominium came to be established in the Sudan

nr It was little short of providential that at the time this question had to be settled a Minister presided at the Foreign Office who

did not allow himself to be unduly bound by precedent and con- vention. The problem which had to be solved was how the Sudan, without being designated as British territory, could be

spared all the grave inconveniences which would have resulted if

it had continued to be classed as Ottoman territory. When the cannon at Omdurman had once cleared the ground for political action, it appeared at first sight that politicians were impaled on

the horns of an insoluble dilemma. Lord Salisbury, however, whose memory I shall never cease to revere, said to me on one

occasion that when once one gets to the foot of apparently impasa-

able mountains tile generally possible by diligent search to dial some way of getting through them. So it proved in the present

instance. It occurred to me that the Sudan might he made neither English nor Egyptian, but Anglo-Egyptian. Sir Malcolm Menwraith clothed this extremely illogical political conception in suitable legal phraseology. I must confess that I made the pre- posal with no very sanguine hopes that it would be accepted. Lord Salisbury, however, never thought twice on the matter. He joyfully agreed to the creation of a hybrid State of a nature eminently calculated to shock the susceptibilities of international jurists. The possible objections of foreign governments were con-

jured nway by the formal declaration that no preference would be accorded to British trade. The British and Egyptian flags were hoisted with pomp oaths palace of Khartum, and from that time ferth Sir yeginald Wingate and his very capable subordinates have been given a free hand."

It is common form among a certain number of Englishmen— we fear their opinion is not entirely free from cant and mig.

gishness when it is not merely ignorant—to regard soldiers as necessarily bad administrators. Mr. Bernard Shaw's phrase in The Devil's Disciple, "I never expect a soldier to think," is probably the model of a good many silly ready-made judgments. The British Empire provides many examples of wise rule by soldiers, but we know of no more shining example than the Sudanese Government. It was made by soldiers. Nowadays the proportion of civil officials is being increased, but the reason of this is that (according to Lord Cromer's principles) frequent changes are very bad for any organiza- tion, and the inevitable withdrawal of officers who had been "lent" to the Sudanese Government used to mean too frequent changes. As regards the respective merits of soldiers and civilians as administrators, Lord Cromer says that he finds it impossible to generalize. When the Sudanese Government was formed it was easier to fill the appointments with soldiers, but in Lord Cromer's opinion it was a matter of complete indifference whether the new officials had received their early training at Sandhurst or at Oxford or Cambridge.

Mr. Low brings out well the peculiar claraeter or the Anglo-Egyptian Government of the Sudan. There is nothing else like it in the world. Probably no one but an Engiisinastr would have dreamed ef proposing such a singular compromise. For, of course, when it has been said that the Government is Anglo-Egyptian the paradox is not exhausted. The Governor- General is responsible to the King and to the Khedive, but the Khedive Is nominally responsible in his turn to the Sultan of Turkey. In practice the Governor-General, having never been interfered with, is responsible to no one unless it be to the British Agent at Cairo, who really controls the Khedive, yet is content with the bumble title of Consul-General and British Agent. The complications are, however, entirely con- fined to the theory of the Government. In reality the Government of the Sudan works quite simply. Happily Englishmen are not frightened off a scheme because it lacks logic on paper.

' The Sudan is not so well known that it is superfluous to remind readers of its size. Mr. Low says :—

: is twelve hundred miles long and a thousand miles wide, and it has an area of a million squaro miles—two-thirds the size of India, larger than Great Britain, France, Germany, and Austria together. One province alone would hold Spain comfortably and have room to spare. Nor are these vast spaces mere waste tracts, empty squares, such as used to he left blank on those old maps of Africa which are still too often reproduced in our modern atlases. There is plenty of swamp, scrub, and desert in the Sudan. But there is also a large amount which is actually rich and fertile, and a still larger amount whioh, under certain conditions, such as we are now beginning to apply, might be made so. The population of the whole territory is estimated at little more than three millions. But this is due to temporary MIMI) which we have now eliminated. That is to say, to the ruin and havoc wrought by Mahdism. The Sudan has in former times supported a large number of inhabitants, it was even the seat of populous civilised communities, and it may become so again."

Mr. Low does not pretend that the British are popular in Egypt. In fact, be definitely explains that they are not, the chief reason he gives being that Moslems can never really • reconcile their affections to the government of Christians, even though they admit that their material interests would suffer ruin if British government collapsed. In the Sudan it may be that liking is added to respect or to fear. Mr. Low says of the hearing of the Sudanese towards the British :— " Black or brown, semitic or negroid in blood, these people seers to have an excellent underanuiding with the latest rulers whom the chances of history have imposed upon them. Furious fighters as some of them have been, they give one the impression of a docile, easily-governed folk. Unless all appearances belie them they both like and respect the men from the distant North who are set in authority over them. They are 'casual ' towards the Greeks, familiar rather than friendly with the Egyptians ; but towards the English their demeanour is reverential. When a native mounted on a donkey passes an English gentleman, even in the streets of Khartum, it is etiquette for him to dismount from his beast and salute ; it is also correct for tho Briton to acknow- ledge the salutation with punctilious courtesy. So it used to be in India when there were only sahibs in that land, and in Egypt, ioo. I believe, in the pre-Cookian days. In the Sudan even now they are beginning to distinguish between the mere tourist and the important official resident who wears the gilt crescent on the front of his pith helmet ; presently the European may find himself treated as brusquely by brown elbows and toes as he is in the streets of Cairo and Bombay."

At all events, in the Northern Sudan the natives cannot com- plain that their new rulers are trying to entice them away from Islam, for Christian missions have been forbidden. This embargo is a step further in respect for native creeds than has been practised in India ever since Queen Victoria promised (on the supersession of the East India Company) that the British Government would not try to force Christianity upon India. But the Viceroy has, of course, never forbidden missionaries to try to convert the Indian people. The teaching at Gordon College at Khartum is, necessarily, entirely secular. The aim of the College is to provide a sound technical training, not to cause intellectual indigestion by giving to all comers an unsuitable diet of philosophy and poetry.

Mr. Low evidently thinks not only that Islam is stronger than ever in Egypt and the Sudan, but that it will not lose lie hold. He does not allow any weight to the argument that Mohammedanism lean inelastic religion, and cannot be recon- ciled with the conduct of a modern progressive State. He remarks that the Bible is as inapplicable as the Koran to modern methods; but if Mr. Low would read the Bible and the Koran side by side be would see, we think, that while the New Testament contains general principles of life which are applicable for all time, the Koran contains many rules that cannot possibly be observed by modern civilized men. It is unfortunately one of the chief defects of Islam that when its

followers relax their conviction of the need to regard the whole of the Koran as literally binding they save virtually nothing from the wreck of their faith. The fine and simple, if fierce, honesty of old-fashioned Moslems seems to disappear. That an enlightened' self-governing corantnnity, genuinely zealous for the preservation of every form of liberty, will ever profess Mohamthedanism we do not believe.

We have not mentioned the Capitulations, because the subject is ,familiar; but Mr. Low agrees with all competent observers that the abolition or modification of them is an essential preliminary to the establishment of the aystent of justice which Egypt ought to have. The nationals of the Powers really gain nothing by the present system. It gives them personal safeguards in form, but they suffer numerous material injuries indirectly through the freqnent defeat of justice. Only misguided tradition and prejudice stend in the way of reform.