England in Egypt ... New edition

Front matter

a ENGLAXD IN EGYPT ENGLAND IN EGYPT. BY ALFRED MILNER, LATE UNUER-SECKETARY FOR FINANCE IN EGYPT. NEW EDITION. LONDON: EDWARD ARNOLD, 37, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.C. 13ttfcItiSI)tx to ti)r JEu&ta ©fficr. 1894. {Alt rights reserved ) PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLE5. EGYPT IN 1894. "England in Egypt" was first published in December, 1892, and has run through four editions in its original form. In the present (fifth) edition nothing has been altered, except the type and the size of the pages. The whole work has been reprinted without omission or modification of any kind. But the important political events which have occurred in Egypt during the last fifteen months seem to call for some supplementary observations. I venture to hope that these events have been rendered more intelligible to some portion of the British public by the outline of the Egyptian problem contained in the present work.

The main object of my book was to give the English reader, who might not happen to be acquainted with Egypt at first hand, a clue to the complexities of the unique political situation existing in that country, to enable him to understand, not only the work which Great Britain is doing on the banks of the Nile, but also the strange conditions under which it has to be accomplished. And this clue to the Egyptian labyrinth — this Guide-Book to Political Egypt — may still be of service in the years to come. Great and unexpected as have been the events which have VI taken place since this book first appeared, they have not altered the fundamental conditions of the problem, as expounded in the following pages. Indeed, I am presumptuous enough to think that what has happened is calculated to illustrate and confirm the general cor rectness of the picture which I drew two years ago, and which I now again submit to the world, without any fear that its accuracy will be impugned by the events of the future any more than it has been by those of the immediate past.

But while there is nothing to retract, there are, no doubt, some things to add, in order to bring the book up to date. As far as the material condition of Egypt is concerned, its most recent history is one of continued and even accelerated progress. Two more annual balance-sheets have to be added to those enumerated in Chapter VIII., and they show the following results — Revenue. Expenditure. Surplus. 1892 £E10,363,000 £E9,595,000 £E768,000 1893 £E 10,321 ,000 £E9,601,000 £E720,000 The various Reserve Funds have now reached a total of £E3,554,000. And these surpluses, and this accumulation of resources against a rainy day, have been brought about in spite of fresh and important reductions of the Land Tax,* of a further diminution of railway rates, and of other minor concessions to the taxpayer.

Preface

TO THE FIFTH EDITION. the bulk of the people, who at heart are far from dissatisfied with the status quo, found it prudent to give a demonstrative, though hollow, support to the policy of their rulers. It did not occur to them to doubt that the Khedive and his Ministers, before placing themselves in open opposition to the English, had made sure that they were strong enough to carry such a policy to a successful issue, and this being so, they naturally desired to be on the safe side. Herein lies the simple explanation of the " un popularity " of the English in Egypt, of which we have lately heard so much. To Englishmen at home, the demonstrations made against us have been a matter of surprise. " How is it," they not unnaturally ask, " that, if we have done so much good to the country, we are not more popular there ?

" Yet the answer is easy. As strangers of an alien faith, possibly of un sympathetic manners, we shall never be popular in the sense of being personally beloved. But neither are we unpopular — at least with the great mass of the people — in the sense that they desire to be rid of us. Free to choose without fear of the consequences, they would undoubtedly prefer the present state of things to the arbitrary system that preceded our advent. But with the Khedive and the native magnates conspicuously hostile to us, they shrewdly reason thus : " If we do not take sides against the English, we shall be prejudiced while they remain, and punished when they go. If we do take sides against them, we shall curry favour with our native rulers in the present, and we are perfectly safe whatever may be the result in the future; for, should the English remain, they will not hurt us, and 1894.

XVII should they go, we shall be able to make capital out of the fact that we belonged to the patriotic opposition while they were here." Under these circumstances, it is not a matter of wonder to any one who knows the Egyptian character, that during the recent troubles we seemed to have few friends. It is true there was not much open defiance, but those who had always opposed us were more stubborn, and those who had hitherto sided with us were less cordial than before. Almost every English man engaged in the work of administration found the dead weight he had to lift appreciably heavier. His native subordinates yielded him a less cheerful obedience ; his native colleagues, of equal or superior rank, gave him no help. Outside the official circle, men who had formerly been friendly now showed a disposition to shun us.

In some cases they frankly explained that they were afraid to appear on good terms with the English. It has been alleged that the manner of the common people towards Englishmen, and more or less towards all foreigners, became visibly discourteous and almost menacing. This aspect of the case was perhaps somewhat exaggerated ; but there is no doubt that many cool-headed observers began to grow uneasy as to the possibility of popular disturbances, which no one dreamt of a couple of years ago. It would serve no good purpose to recall the various unpleasant incidents, mostly insignificant in themselves, to which the attempt to annoy and obstruct the British officials gave rise. The covert opposition of the native element naturally made itself most felt in those depart ments of government in which our position has always

PREFACE.

TO THE FIFTH EDITION. XVIII been weakest. But to a greater or less extent the baneful influence was perceptible everywhere. The art of creating difficulties is well understood by the Egyptian bureaucracy, and it is no easy matter to grapple with an ubiquitous obstruction which is often ingenious and almost always polite. The situation was a radically false one ; but it is impossible to say how long it might have continued without the occurrence of any open rupture, had not the impetuosity of the Khedive led him to adopt a method of attack which made the vigorous interference of the English Government once more inevitable. It is in consistent with our general policy and peculiarly repugnant to Lord Cromer's temper and instincts to meddle with the every-day business of Egyptian administration, or to intervene, for any slight reason, between the English and the native servants of the Khedive.

But when Abbas Pasha began to tamper with the discipline of the Army, the matter was too serious to be overlooked. The existing Egyptian Army has been created by British officers, and for ten years the supreme authority of the Sirdar in all purely military questions has remained undisputed. But with the promotion of Maher Pasha to the post of Under secretary of State for War, in the autumn of 1893, difficulties, unknown since the earliest days of the Occupa tion, began to arise in the administration of the War Office. With some trouble a truce was concluded which left the Sirdar's authority nominally unimpaired. But the attempt to undermine the position of Englishmen in the Egyptian Army did not stop there. On his now famous visit to the frontier in January last, the Khedive 1894. XIX lost no opportunity of publicly slighting the British officers who accompanied or received him ; and his dislike to them was finally exhibited in so extreme a form that General Kitchener felt bound to resign the position of Sirdar.

His resignation was, indeed, at the Khedive's request, speedily withdrawn ; but the manifest intention of Abbas Pasha to discredit the British officers, and to destroy their hold upon the troops, had brought about a situation not only absurd but in tolerably dangerous. Unless something could be done to rehabilitate the highest officers of the Egyptian Army in the eyes of their subordinates and the country, discipline would be at an end, and the internal tran quillity of Egypt, as well as the security of her frontiers, gravely imperilled. These considerations led the British Government to take prompt and decided action. Under instructions from home, Lord Cromer demanded that the Khedive should issue a General Order expressing his approval of the discipline and efficiency of the Army, and his satisfaction with the officers whose authority he had done so much to shake.

In the painful position in which he was thus placed, the Khedive found himself without supporters. The Ministry of Riaz Pasha, which had up to this point encouraged him in his campaign against the English, was disconcerted by the rashness of his latest act, and counselled submission. The French Minister, and the other foreign elements usually most hostile to Great Britain, were dismayed at the possible consequences of an overthrow of discipline in the Army. Perhaps Abbas Pasha himself was taken aback by the evidence of the universal alarm which his recent conduct had inspired, XX

PREFACE.

TO THE FIFTH EDITION. Be that as it may, he retreated with the best grace he could, and issued the Order which had practically been dictated to him. In the first instance it was published only in French; but the British Government was not satisfied, and its publication in Arabic had to follow. Moreover, Lord Cromer was instructed to demand that Maher Pasha should be removed from his post at the War Office. Here again the Khedive was at first inclined to resist. He would remove Maher Pasha when another suitable post could be found for him. But this compromise was not accepted, and within a few days Maher Pasha was sent elsewhere, and another officer, Zohrab Pasha, whose loyalty to his English colleagues was beyond question, was promoted to his place. Thus the result of the young Khedive's ill-judged crusade was to compel the reluctant British Government to inflict upon him a severer humiliation than has ever befallen the ruler of Egypt since the days of Arabi, and to demonstrate its own power with greater emphasis than on any previous occasion.

The effect of that de monstration has been precisely what any man, who knows the character of the people, would have pre dicted. For the moment the " Nationalist " opposition is completely disbanded, and Great Britain has once more a native party on her side. Moreover, the confi dence of the Khedive in the anti-British Ministry, which had failed to support him at the critical moment, was destroyed. It is probable that he never got on really well with Riaz Pasha, and now that their joint en deavours had ended in such conspicuous failure, each no doubt threw the blame upon the other. Hence, Eo-ypt has, during the last two months, been once more in the 1894. XXI throes of a ministerial crisis. At the present moment, and while these words are actually being written, a telegram from Cairo announces that this crisis is at last terminated, and that, after six years of retirement, Nubar Pasha has returned to power.

What may be the effects of this change it would be foolish to attempt to predict. Nubar Pasha is unquestionably the most capable of living Egyptian statesmen. His great ability, his en lightened mind, his sympathy with our principal objects, if not with ourselves, will cause all well-wishers of Egypt to long for his success. He, if any man, should be able to extricate the Khedive from the false position in which he has placed himself, and to re-establish good relations between him and the British Government. But if Nubar is to do this, Abbas Pasha must help him. Should the Khedive remain irreconcilable, no genius on earth could make the present system of Egyptian administration a workable one. The immediate future is thus very uncertain. But the essential conditions of the problem remain unaltered.

They only stand out more clearly in the light of recent events. There are two possibilities before Egypt. One is the frank acceptance by the Khedive and his native advisers of the helping hand which Great Britain still holds out to them, and their co-operation with us in that work of constructive reform which is honestly in tended to make Egypt capable of ultimate autonomy. The other is their persistence in the recent policy of -hostility and obstruction — a policy which renders the success of our work under present conditions impossible, and must therefore end in some radical change. That chan°*e would not necessarily take the form of the establishment of British dominion. Such might be the outcome, but there are other solutions at least equally probable. They are all, however, alike inconsistent with the ideal of Egyptian independence.

The one thing which the attempt to shake off the guiding hand of Great Britain cannot result in, is a complete escape of Egypt from foreign control. If any doubt previously existed as to the incom petence of the new " Nationalist " party to grapple with the exceedingly delicate problems which the government of the country presents, the mad pro ceedings of the last year and a half must surely have dissipated it. Even assuming that the Khedive and his " Nationalist " sympathizers were right, and that Great Britain ought now to leave Egypt to her own devices, could any sane body of men have believed that that object was to be attained by the means actually adopted ? Was it conceivable that, after all that had passed, the English would allow themselves to be ignominiously hustled out of the country, or that their withdrawal would be quickened by a deliberate attempt to wreck the work they have been doing, and the preservation of which is the only object of their continued presence ?

Such an idea convicts the men possessed by it of political imbecility. No reasonable critic will be in clined to take a very severe view of the Khedive's own action, disastrous as its effects have hitherto been. He was suddenly called to the throne at a very early ao*e. He had had no opportunity of acquainting himself with the nature or the limits of the great power placed in his hands, and he was surrounded from the first by ad visers who helped him to misinterpret the situation. 1894. XXIII But the same excuse cannot be made for the want of sense or of character which led the men, who ought to have instructed and restrained him, to become his ready tools in a course of action which, whether right or wrong, was certain to end in failure. It is not to feather-brained politicians of this type that the fortunes of any country, least of all of Egypt, can safely be entrusted.

The future must show whether Abbas Pasha, who is undoubtedly a man of courage, is also a man capable of profiting by experience. If so, the policy, which Great Britain has all along pursued, of seeking to effect the regeneration of Egypt through the agency of her native rulers, may yet be crowned with success. I have never attempted to ignore the difficulties of that policy. I do not deny that during the last year and a half those difficulties have appeared greater than ever before. But this solution of the problem, if we can only arrive at it, is, after all that has happened, so much the best, that we ought, I think, to be very slow to despair of its achievement. The chief obstacle to the attainment of our end is the fact that our intentions are generally misunderstood. Even in England there seem to be few people who have made up their minds what object we are, or ought to be, pursuing with regard to Egypt.

The question is often asked, why, if we do not intend to keep the country, we should be at such pains to improve it ? What call have we to play the role of philanthropists ? I have tried, in the course of this book, to supply an answer to such questionings. Let me briefly repeat that answer. On the one hand, our commercial interests in Egypt are so great, and growing, that her prosperity, which would be immediately wrecked by misgovernment, is a matter of concern to us.* Secondly, and chiefly, the geographical position of Egypt compels attention to her political condition. We have nothing to gain by own ing the country ourselves, but we should have a great deal to fear from its falling into the possession of another Power. And the best means to provide against this — short of annexation — is to secure such tolerable condi tions of life and administration in the Nile Valley as will prevent the recurrence of anarchy, necessitating foreign interventions Therefore our efforts to endow Egypt with a decent native government are not philanthropy, they are business.

But they are business of a perfectly straightforward and honourable kind, and possessing the characteristic of all good business, namely, that both the parties concerned are benefited. _l_ This, I believe, is a perfectly fair statement of the case. But it is a common impression in Egypt, sedulously fostered by our foreign rivals, that England's real desire is to convert her present informal protectorate, by gradual stages, into complete dominion. True, such a theory is wholly inconsistent with the tendency of all our actions. For why, if we simply desired to appropriate the country, should we spend our strength in painful and always misconstrued efforts to improve the native Army, the native Courts, the native Civil Service ; to select the best men and to train them in the habits of civilized government ; to discourage jobbery, and to stamp out corruption ?

It would be far easier to make * Seepp. 2G2-2G1. t See, for a fullc-r development of this ilea, pp. 425-42S. 1894. XXV no attempt to raise the character of the native admini stration. The worse it became, the better would be our excuse for staying on indefinitely. But the true inter pretation of our reforming zeal is too simple for the suspicious minds of many native politicians. Believing that our every move conceals some insidious scheme for getting more power into English hands, they are easily tempted to intrigue against us, and thereby to protract our work and make our gradual withdrawal difficult, if not impossible. This is the latest of Egyptian paradoxes, that those who are most keenly desirous to see us go away, are always doing the very things which are calculated to postpone our going till the Greek Kalends.

No doubt this misconception of the aim of British policy, steadily dinned into his ears from the first moment of his accession, has had much to do with the hostile attitude of the Khedive. If Nubar Pasha can succeed in removing that misconception, he will have rendered the greatest of all services to his master and to his country. It is only necessary that the Khedive should have faith in the honesty of British intentions, and should assist our work instead of thwarting it, in order that the progress of the country, political as well as material, may once again go on apace. We should then hear little more of " Nationalist " agitation, or of the unpopularity of the British. For the " Nationalist " movement of the past year, unlike that of Arabi's time, was no spontaneous uprising of the people against intolerable oppression. It was a factitious movement, encouraged from above, and without such encouragement it would at once cease to be serious. If the signal for

PREFACE.

TO THE FIFTH EDITION. conciliation were given from head-quarters, the steady, though often intangible, opposition which we have had to encounter of recent days would rapidly disappear, and the native officials, instead of wasting their energies in trying to circumvent their British colleagues, would be set free to co-operate with us in promoting the welfare of their country. As long as the Khedive is against us, these officials, even when at heart favourable to our work, are in a position of extreme difficulty. Loyalty to the English is represented as disloyalty to their master. There is no doubt about the sincere desire of the best of them, that antagonism between the Khedive and the British should cease. And cease it evidently must, if the present political constitution of Egypt is to endure. A. M. Loxdox, April 14, 1894.

PREFACE.

TO THE FIRST EDITION. The following book is the result of my experience and my inquiries during a residence of several years in Egypt. When I began writing it, eight months ago, I never contemplated leaving Egypt immediately. I counted on several years, during which I could complete my studies and give them an adequate literary form. Unexpectedly recalled to England, and confronted at once with new and arduous duties, I had to answer the question, whether I should abandon my work, put it aside in the hope of finishing it gradually in leisure moments, or give it to the world at once, in however defective a shape. I could not bring myself to abandon it, for it seemed to me, with all its shortcomings, to have some value and interest, especially at the present time. I saw great danger in postponing it ; for not only might the leisure necessary for its completion never come to me, but my writing would certainly lose some of the force which attaches to the record of experiences that are still lvcent and vivid. So I decided to bring out my

PREFACE.

TO THE FIRST EDITION. book at once in the best form that hurry and stress of other business would allow me to give to it. Freshness and timeliness would, I hoped, atone for the lack of completeness and finish. Whether my decision was a wise one, it is not for me to say. But I have felt bound, out of respect for my readers, to offer some explanation for the evident hastiness of the work, and the consequent omissions in substance and imperfections in style — of which no one can be more conscious than the author. A. M. Loxdox, November, 1892. NOTE. The spelling of Arabic words has caused me great difficulty, with which every scholar will sympathize. Finally, I decided that in a book of this kind any elaborate principle of transliteration was out of place. So I have followed, to the best of my ability, the simple phonetic system recommended by the Eoyal Geographical Society, the main rules of which are, that the vowels have the same value as in Italian, and the consonants the same value as in English, and that a single accent (') is used, where necessary, to denote the syllable on which the stress of pro nunciation falls.

CONTENTS. I'AGE Preface to Fifth Edition: Egypt in 1891 ... ... v Preface to First Edition' ... ... ... x.wii CHAFTER I. Introductory : The Land of Paradox ... ... l II. Restoring Order ... ... ... ... H III. The Veiled Protectorate ... ... ... ... 29 IV. International Fetters ... ... ... ... 14 V. The Years of Gloom ... ... ... ... 77 VI. The Break in the Clouds ... ... ... 125 VII. The Fellah as Soldier ... ... ... ... 1G9 VIII. The Race against Bankruptcy ... ... ... 210 IX. The Struggle for Water ... ... ... ... 271 X. Experiments in Justice ... ... ... ... 323 XI. Odds and Ends of Reform ... ... ... ... 355 XII. English and Egyptians ... ... ... ... 385 XIII. The Difficulty with France ... ... ... 411 XIV. The Future Outlook ... ... ... ... 429 Index ... ... ... ... ... ... 445 Map of Egypt and the Sudan ... ... ...

At end. ERRATA. sage GG, line 4, for " in administrative work " read " in the administrative work." ,, 103 „ 27, for " these departments" read "those departments." „ 153 „ 21, for "effort" read "effect." „ 218 ,, 7, for "arreas" read ''arrears." ,, 221 ,, 24, for "risen" read "arisen." ,,228 ,, 25, for "proved" read "provided." ,,251 ,, 22, for "restored to" read "resorted to." ,, ?65 ,, 30, for "production" read "situation." ,. 294 ,, 7, for "makeup" read "take up." ,,393 ,, 24, for "The Egyptian patriotism" read "Their Egyptian patriotism." ,, 426 ,, 5, for "effect" read "affect." ENGLAND IN EGYPT.

Chapter I. Introductory

: THE LAND OF PARADOX. More than two thousand years ago, the Father of History, in his comprehensive survey of the then known world, singled out Egypt as pre-eminently the land of wonders. " I speak at length about Egypt," he says, " because it contains more marvellous things than any other country, things too strange for words." To the miracles of its rainless climate and all-begetting river, to the mysterious monuments of human power and perseverance towering since the remotest ages over its inexhaustibly fertile plain, Egypt added, in its history and institutions, in the character and customs of its inhabitants, other marvels not less unique. No country upon earth could vie with it in idiosyncrasy or in interest. And this is the case even at the present day. In the world as known to Herodotus, Egypt, though fallen from its ancient grandeur, still filled a considerable space.

Now it is a mere speck on the map. In wealth, in power, in population, in intelligence, it has dwindled to insignificance. But its pre eminence in interest stands unimpaired. The fascination of its primeval monuments remains, and every year an increasing crowd of pilgrims comes from all quarters of the earth to do them homage. The annual miracle of the Nile flood remains, more deeply impressive perhaps to the few strangers who are privileged to witness it than all the tombs and all the temples. And as in its physical singularity, as in its stupendous antiquities, so in the life and habits of its people, and in the form — yes, nowadays above all, in the form of its government — Egypt is still, like the Egypt of Herodotus, the chosen home of what is strange and unexampled and paradoxical. Conqueror after conqueror has swept over the land.

Dynasty has supplanted dynasty. There have been centuries of political chaos, from which the wonder is that anything at all has escaped. Paganism has given way to Christianity, Christianity to Islam. Yet amid countless changes, the country retains one unchanging attribute. Alike in its greatness and in its impotence, in prosperity and in ruin ; whether split up among a number of petty rulers, or united under one gigantic despotism ; whether prostrate before the fantastic images of a thousand gods, or plunged in fanatical devotion to a Divine Unity of which any image is a desecration, Egypt, altered in so many aspects, remains unalterably, eternally abnormal. This genius for eccentricity is something that no change can exorcise. Paradox seems rooted in the soil. Nowhere in the world will you find a peasantry whose daily life presents so many elements of the odd and picturesque as the fellahin of Egypt.

Nowhere do East A CLASSICAL PARALLEL. 3 and West jostle each other in such startling contrast or with more grotesque results. And nowhere, surely nowhere, is civilized government carried on under more incredible conditions. The monstrosities of the Political Constitution of Egypt as it exists to-day may be the latest, but they are certainly not the least of the wonderful things, " too strange for words," of which, in the moral as in the physical order, the Nile valley has from time immemorial been so prolific. " The women of Egypt," says Herodotus, " are em ployed in trade and business, while the men stay at home to spin and weave. Other nations in weaving throw the woof up the warp, but an Egyptian throws it down. In other countries sons are constrained to make provision for their parents; in Egypt it is not the sons, but the daughters.

In other countries the priests of the gods wear hair ; in Egypt they are shaved. In other countries the dwellings of men are separated from those of beasts ; in Egypt man and beast live together. Other nations fasten their ropes and hooks to the out side of their sails, but the Egyptians to the inside. The Greeks write and read from left to right, but the Egyp tians from right to left." And so on, through a long tale of peculiarities, some superficial and some essential, not a few of which cannot here be quoted with any respect for the delicacy of modern taste. But long as the tale is, it would be easy to match it by a list of the anomalies, the intricacies, and the shams with which the Political System of Egypt, in its latest development, positively bristles. This is a matter on which I speak with feeling, and with no slight experience.

Among the thousands of travellers who annually visit Egypt for health, amuse ment, or instruction, there are, say, one per cent. — but that nowadays is no inconsiderable number — who, despite the attraction of the ancient monuments of the country and the striking features which characterize its present life, have still some interest to spare for the social and economic conditions, on which the welfare of its picturesque inhabitants depends, and for the strange 'political experiment, unique in history, of which it is at this moment the scene. To not a few of these inquirers it has been my humble duty to try and explain how the machine worked — or did not work. Where they happened to be quite new to the subject, I have a vivid recollec tion of the look of strained attention, passing through blank bewilderment to ultimate despair, with which they followed my well-meant efforts to guide them amidst the labyrinth of jarring interests, conflicting authorities, and hopelessly disintegrated sovereignty.