We record with much regret the death on Wednesday of
Sir Eldon Gorst, who till a few days ago was British Agent and Consul-General in Egypt. Sir Eldon Gorst was the eldest son of Sir John Gent, and entered the diplomatic service in 1885. Five years later he joined the service of the Egyptian Government. He was associated with Lord Cromer in the happy period when Egyptian prosperity was growing by leaps and bounds. In 1902 he was made K.C.B., and in 1904 joined the staff of the Foreign Office in London as Assistant Under Secretary. Li 1907 he succeeded Lord Cromer, and had the misfortune to have to deal with a difficult period. Unwise financial speculations in Egypt were accompanied by reactions from the Moslem unrest in Turkey and India. The Egyptian Nationalists urgently demanded greater powers of self-government, and in our judgment Sir Eldon Gorst, with excellent intentions and, of course, acting as the instrument of the British Government, went further than the circum- stances warranted in granting them. The murder of Boutros Pasha and the rejection of the Suez Canal scheme were sobering episodes, and Sir Eldon Gorst showed latterly that he was under no illusions as to the fitness of the Egyptians to govern themselves.. The crisis was past. It is a tragedy of fate that he should not have lived to enjoy the credit and honour of easier times which would undoubtedly have been his.
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