What this country has broadly to decide is whether a
friendly Egypt is not more valuable from a military as well as a political point of view than an unfriendly one hedged about with military restrictions and precautions. At the beginning of the Italian-Abyssinian affair there seemed to be an excellent opportunity for a renewal of friendship with the Egyptian people. They were whole- heartedly with us on that issue and ready and willing for any necessary military co-operation. But they looked for some public assurance that they would be treated as allies and not as vassals, and when this was not forth- coming, and there followed the unfortunate episode of Sir Samuel Hoare's Guildhall speech, extremists had rich material for the allegation that England was in the mood to ride roughshod over them in internal as well as external affairs. The Cairo correspondents have hinted at other lapses and omissions during these months, and though it is not too late to retrieve the situation there is a strong opinion among the older and wiser British residents in Egypt that it should never have been allowed to become what it is.
