At the meeting of the Egypt Exploration Fund on Friday
week Lord Cromer spoke of "the administrative side of Egyptology." He regretted that Egyptology could not be conducted apart from politics, but, as a matter of fact, it was impossible owing to the cosmopolitan conditions of modern Egypt. The Anglo-French negotiations of 1904 proved it. Some critics held that Egyptology had then been sacrificed to some extent to policy, but he altogether demurred to that opinion. The engagement entered into by the British Government that the head of the Archaeological Department should always be a Frenchman was not unreason- able. The French were the fathers of Egyptology, and the French claim to a personal supremacy in the matter was not excessive. Englishmen, however, had a right to demand the fulfilment of two conditions : first, that the French head of the Department should be well fitted for his office ; and second, that there should be no exclusiveness in appoint- ments to the Department or in the treatment of unofficial explorers. At present these conditions were admirably satisfied by the holder of the office, M. Maspero.
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