CORRESPONDENCE.
EGYPT UNDER BRITISH OCCUPATION.
SIR,—Having lately spent three months in Egypt, I should like to be allowed to describe in your columns some of the impressions which I have brought home from my observation of the influence of British occupation on the well-being of that most interesting country. During those three months I lived on board a dababeah,—a mode of life which affords exceptional opportunities for studying not only the archaeology but the political and social condition of the country. The occupants of a dahabeah can stop where they please, and as long as they please,—a privilege which is necessarily denied to excursionists on board the steamers which ply up and down the Nile. I did my best, moreover, to glean in- formation from every available source ; not only from British officials, civil and military, but from natives both Christian and Mussulman. The British occupation of Egypt may be regarded from two distinct points of view,—its bearing on English policy, and its bearing on the welfare of Egypt. Is it good for England P On that question English opinion is seriously divided. It may be argued that our occupation of Egypt deprives us of the advantage of our insular position, and might be a source of great danger in the event of our being at war with a Great Power. That is my own opinion ; but it is a question for military experts, and I do not propose to discuss it here. In one of his instructive Reports for the year 1891, Sir Evelyn Baring (now Lord Cromer) says frankly :—" I have never been a partisan of a British occupation of Egypt. Indeed, during my early connection with Egyptian affairs I did all that lay in my power to prevent the creation of a state of things which would render any foreign occupation necessary. If at this moment I thought the evacuation of the country a policy the execu- tion of which did not involve risks which no prudent Govern- ment should run, I should not hesitate to recommend its adoption. It is because I am convinced of the serious nature of those risks that I am at present unable to recommend it." Waiving the question as to the possibility of avoiding originally any foreign occupation of the country, Lord Cromer goes on to say :—" As matters now stand, I venture to think that the Government and people of England cannot lightly throw off the responsibilities which they have not willingly assumed, but which have rather been thrust upon them by the force of circumstances." It is from that point of view that I wish to examine the question of our continued occupation of Egypt. Whether that occupation be good or bad for England, there is no question at all that it has been an inestimable blessing to Egypt. Has the time arrived, or are we within a measurable distance of the time, when the reforms which we have intrr- (laced would survive our departure P Before giving my own answer to that question, let me try to give your readers an idea of what those reforms are.
Arabi's rebellion left Egypt in a state of chaos. The real motive of that rebellion was to recover uncontrolled supremacy for the Mussulman system of government, the result of which would have been, as all history attests, to reduce Egypt in no long time to the condition of Morocco. During Arabi's brief regime the reforms initiated under the Anglo-French control had been nearly all swept away, and the old system of oppression, corruption, and injustice of every kind revived automatically, as they always do under a Mussulman Govern- ment when foreign control is removed. Forced labour was the universal rule. Justice was administered by the arbitrary use of the cruel courbash. Taxation had reached a point which paralysed the arms of industry. Slavery was a recog- nised institution. The Army had ceased to exist. The subject race was at the mercy of the dominant. And, as a natural consequence of this state of things, trade was rapidly declining.
This was the condition of Egypt at the period of the British occupation. Let us see what it is now. The corvee is abolished. And let me explain that the corvge means the forced, unpaid, unfed labour of the peasantry. In one year this labour, on canals and embankments alone, occupied eighty-five thousand men for sixty days. Under the old regime the use of the con rbash was one of the ordinary incidents in the life of the wretched fellaheen, and torture by the courbash and other- wise was employed in the collection of taxes and in extorting evidence in so-called Courts of Justice. The courbash, the bastinado, and other methods of torture are now legally abolished, though they are still probably practised on the sly where there seems no likelihood of British officers hearing of the illegality. So hard is it to root out the evil habits of centuries. I witnessed an illustration of this fact myself while sojourning on the Nile. One of our party, while innocently shooting pigeons in the neighbourhood of a village, about a mile and a half from the dahabeah, was set upon by the villagers, who beat him and took his gun from him. And not satisfied with this, they ill-used and robbed two of our Berber sailors. The Lieutenant of the district, on being informed of the outrage, had the principal culprits promptly arrested. They were tried the following day, and I attended, partly as a spectator, and partly to give evi- dence, if required. But it was not required. The Lieutenant begged my friend to describe the assault, and point out his assailants. As each assailant was identified, the Lieutenant went up to him and gave him a good lecture on his misconduct accompanied by a box on the ear. He then asked my friend what punishment he would like to inflict, and on my friend declining the responsibility, the Lieutenant pulled out of a drawer a copy
of Instructions issued by Kitchener Pasha, who was then at the head of the Egyptian police. In these Instructions the courbash was strictly forbidden, and the duty of the Lieu- tenant of the district was restricted to the examination of prisoners, who, in case of sufficient prima facie evidence, were to be sent for judgment to another tribunal. " But," said the Lieutenant, " if I send those men to be tried elsewhere, the trial will probably not take place for some days. It may be in- convenient for you to wait, and in the absence of your evidence they may be let off. In any case the punishment, being at a distance from the offending village, will make little impression. What is necessary in a case like this is to make a visible example which shall prevent a similar outrage in future. I believe that a short term of imprisonment on the spot, with a little courbash, would be very salutary; but I dare not do it. I should get into trouble, unless your Pasha (a name by which our host was sometimes known among the natives) guarantee me against punishment." The result was that the culprits were let off with a week's imprisonment, and no courbasb,—a light punishment for their offence. The Lieu- tenant is an excellent fellow, and seemed kind-hearted ; but the incident shows how little rooted in the Mussulnran's mind are the reforms which he reluctantly accepts when imposed by a superior authority.
In the matter of taxation, not only have we put the- taxa- tion of Egypt on an equitable basis, and abolished the cruel abuses connected with the collection of the taxes, but we have done a good deal towards remitting taxation, and would have done more but for the obstruction of France. Daring the years 1890-91, the amount of taxation remitted was £650,000. That means legal taxation. But it must be noted that under the old system the illegal exactions were enormous. So that the real relief to the peasantry is far in excess of the legal remission, for no illegal exactions are now permitted. But the most important contribution, which the British occupation has made to the material prosperity of Egypt, is the wonder- ful improvement in the system of irrigation. Your space will not admit of my giving even a dry summary of the details of this work. Let a few examples suffice. The " barrage," or large dam, at the apex of the Delta, which had been con- structed at a cost of £2,000,000, had cracked soon after its completion twenty-six years ago, and remained useless. This entailed an immense amount of yearly labour to keep the great network of canals in working order,—in fact, the corvee for six months in the year. Just before the British occupation, the Egyptian Government had entered into contract with a private Company to irrigate the Delta by a system of pumps, at an initial cost of £700,000, and an annual cost of £310,000. Contrary to the advice of all the local authorities, the British engineers abandoned this costly and inefficient system of irrigation, and reverted to the use of the "bar- rage," which they repaired. The consequence is that, even in the lowest Nile, enough water is stored to feed the canals and irrigate the soil. And now land which formerly pro- duced only a single crop, and that precariously, bears a double crop with ease. The produce is thus multiplied, while the cost of production has been greatly diminished. The " barrage " system has not yet been applied to the Upper Nile, and the result is an annual minimum loss to the culti- vators of 238,000 ; while the maximum may reach, as in 1877, the immense total of £1,112,000. To remedy this mischief, the British engineers have commenced a series of irrigation works which will probably be completed next year, and the total cost of which is estimated at £600,000. This improved system of irrigation naturally extends the area of soil re- claimed from the desert; and to meet the fresh demand thus made for water, a " barrage " for the Upper Nile has now become a necessity, for without it the extension of the cotton cultivation is impossible. The best place for the Upper Nile " barrage " is said to be just above the First Cataract ; but it is to be hoped that some other place will be found feasible, for a " barrage " at the place proposed would submerge the interesting and beautiful Temple of Philm. The bearing of the improvement in irrigation on the prosperity of Egypt will be appreciated when I state that the increase in 1891-92 in the cotton industry alone ex- ceeded £3,000,000. Another result of our occupation of Egypt is the practical abolition of slavery. At one swoop thirty-two slave-dealers were arrested in Cairo and severely punished, and I have Lord Cromer's authority for saying that there are now
" no slave-dealers in Cairo, or in any part of Egypt." The punishment of the slave-dealers, coupled with the multiplica- tion of Manumission Bureaux, has made slavery such a bad investment, that very few would care to purchase a slave at any price.
Many more illustrations of the beneficence of the British occupation might be given if your space permitted ; but I think I have said enough to give your readers some idea of its extent and variety. And let it be remembered that all this is done for the benefit of Egypt. The employes belonging to other nationalities exceed those of England. The number of Englishmen employed in Egypt in 1886, apart from the British army, was 427, with aggregate salaries of £161,000 a year. In 1890, that number was reduced to 336, with a corresponding reduction in salaries. But the major part of these 336 would remain in Egypt if the British occupation were to cease, for they are employed in connection with the Mixed Administrations, which are international. Independently of the British troops, there are only thirty-nine Englishmen holding- superior appointments in Egypt, at an annual coat of £37,700. To this small body of English officials is due the splendid work of which I have given your readers only a few specimens. The number of officials belonging to other nationalities employed in the Civil Service of Egypt costs that country £115,000 a year.
Now, I have no hesitation at all in asserting that all these reforms would collapse on our retirement. The Sacred Law of Islam would inevitably revive, and that is incompatible with civilisation ; certainly with the reforms which we have introduced. On the other hand, I do not believe that any system of international control would work. The jealousy of France is a serious obstacle in our way as it is. The intrc- duction of other nationalities would largely increase the evil ; and we should soon see the restoration of the state of things which prevailed down to our occupation,—namely, the spectacle of Egypt as a corpus vile on which Turks, French, Italians, Greeks, and other foreigners would begin to fatten and batten. That is the problem which we have to face. It is idle to talk of retiring when we have placed our reforms on a stable footing. That day will never arrive under the uncontrolled regime of a Mussulman Government.—I am, Sir, &c., M.
Previous page
