Correspondence with A J Balfour, Sir R Wingate, Lord Allenby, Lord Milner and others on Egypt [‎89r] (177/300)

this in the name of the British Army ill This they
were enabled to do unraoTested, as the Government had sent
far too many men away to the Army, and there was hardly any
Civil Service men left in the country to run the Interior,
When the Army made their demands the Government ough t to have
insisted on getting their Civil Servants hack for this extra
job. Instead they trusted a rotten native machine and
expected it to do three times its peace time work, uninspect
ed by British.
The fellahin Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. , as I say, had this grievance, but as
against that they have all made piles during the War. None
the less the agitators were easily able to rouse them to
commit excesses which they didn’t care to take the lead in
personally.
So much for the outbreak and its causes, and now for
the present state of the country.
The moral of the Nationalists has been badly shaken
by Wilson, whom they all thought v/ould give (sic) them their
»• independence H though they didn’t know very clearly what
that word meant. For most of them it meant freedom from
control by English Inspectors and unlimited facilities for
peculation and extortion from their less educated fellah Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour.
compatriots. The fact is that 98# of them have not the
wildest idea of logical thought and can only understand
something they can see and feel. W. Ucocks is perfectly
right when he says that not one Oriental in ten thousand
has any abstra.ct idea, of truth and justicej everything
is concrete. As a. result, there! ore, ol strong military
action they are now quiet, being intimidated. Infortunately
they are also very quiet when it comes to giving evidence
against prisoners arrested for rioting; and in many
districts they are still more afraid of the lawless than
of the law - you observe one must not expect too much from
them in the way of moral uprightness or independence o f
character.
What the future is to be, or the future policy rather,
no one knows. It depends, I suppose, on what the Royal
Commission decides. This uncertainity makes it rather
difficult for everyone who has to run the country. At
present we are obeying orders from G.H.Q,. and a good thing
too, a.s the military idea is very much for law and order,
and the longer this control lasts the better.
Altogether I don’t think that the British "Governing
Class" has shone, exactly, in Cairo. There are very few
of them for one thing, just a few Senior men in the