24 JULY 1920, Page 3

The present writer often talked with Lord Cromer on the

subject of forced labour and the core& Lord Cromer used always to say that though in a country like Egypt it was neces- sary to preserve the right to enforce labour in order to save the whole country from inundation, even this right should only be employed with the greatest circumspection and only by Government. Indeed, he came very near to saying that forced labour could only properly and usefully be employed where In fact its use was universally admitted to be just. When there is a breach in the Nile embankment which will, if neglected, drown a whole countryside, no one complains because every- one in the neighbourhood is made "to do his bit."