In the miscellaneous and discursive debate on the Foreign Office
Vote on Thursday, Sir Edward Grey made a memorable statement in regard to the condition of Egypt. In the first place, he showed that the newspaper reports of the executions had given a very incorrect and unfair impression of the manner in which they were carried out. There had been no real want of humanity displayed. Care had been taken that none of the condemned men should witness the punishment of the others, and no one not on duty had been compelled to attend. Indeed, a cordon of police kept the people at a considerable distance. Sir Edward Grey also spoke of the unfairness with which Captain Machell's name bad been brought into the matter. All who know Captain Mitchell, or who have followed his work in Egypt, will note this defence of his action with satisfaction. Not only is he a most capable administrator, but there is probably no man in Egypt who has a greater knowledge of, or a stronger sympathy with, the natives. The notion of associating anything that is brutal or wanting in humanity
with his name is utterly preposterous. Sir Edward Grey went on, in language as impressive as it was obviously sincere, to ask the House to remember that all this year the fanatical feeling in Egypt had been on the increase, a feeling not confined to Egypt, but one which was spreading through the whole of North Africa. Besides the attack near Tanta, there had been other. significant incidents, and, he added, "we may be on the eve of further measures necessary to protect Europeans in Egypt." Speaking deliberately, and with a full sense of responsibility, he declared that "if the House of Commons did anything at this moment to weaken or destroy the authority of the Government as it exists in Egypt, they will be face to face with a very serious situation." Nowhere had the lot of the common people improved so much as in Egypt in the last twenty-five years. "I know very well the House is not going to allow, whatever happens in Egypt, that work to be swept away by a rush of fanatical passion."
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