THE FOREIGN ELEMENT IN EGYPT.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—In the able article on Lord Dufferin's visit to Egypt which appears in your last number, you do not recognise one most important element of the Egyptian population. The great Foreign Colony in Alexandria has immense influence over Con- tinental statesmen and Continental journalism. This colony is, in practical life, the real master of the Consular body, and the creditor, landlord, or employer of the Egyptian Fellahin. I am far from Wishing to justify all the views of the foreigners about Egyptian affairs, but, having just returned from the country, I feel some astonishment at our English way of looking upon Egypt, as a piece to be played upon Anglo- Egyptian understandings. The European Colony has its voice in local affairs, and right or wrong, will make that voice heard in a way which English statesmen and journalists seem scarcely to realise. We might annex the country, and the resident foreigners would bless us, if only they were secured against all danger from the natives. But we cannot give the Arab element anything like self-government, without arousing an amount of colonial opposition which would render the scheme a hopeless failure. These merchants of many lands—Greeks, Italians, or Frenchmen, and British subjects—who live in Egypt and earn their bread among the Egyptians, are a dominant race. The half, at least, of the whole wealth of the country belongs to them or is pledged to them, and they would never allow a Native Assembly to govern the Nile Valley.. I doubt whether even the most localised village self-govern- ment of Arabs would be tolerated by the foreign colony. It seems almost essential, if we are to give fair-play to all parties and to protect the native to some extent, that an Egyptian Council of State, under English guidance, should have all power in the land. The native ideas, if really allowed free 'scope, would be too hostile to the immense foreign interests at -stake in Egypt.—I am, Sir, &a., Temple, E.C., November W. HILARY SKINNER.
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