Report of the Special Mission to Egypt under Lord Milner, and related papers [‎78r] (157/473)

Tr\
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departments, for the most part non-Egyptian, has become increasingly independent of
the Council of Ministers. A growing resentment at the number of posts monopolised
by the British was noticed for a long period antecedent to the war. Egyptian officials
of long experience and considerable competence felt that they were definitely excluded
from rising to the highest positions in view of the system consecrated by prescription
that a post once held by a non-Egyptian was, on its becoming vacant, automatically
filled by a non-Egyptian.
Particulai resentment was occasioned in Egypt at the time of the arrival of the
Mission b\ a recent increase in the numbers of the British engaged for the public
service. Ihis increase, if it was greatly exaggerated by ill-informed rumour, was
nevertheless appieciable, and affected also a few very subordinate offices hitherto filled
1 } a | lv . es ^ ie coimtl 7- ^ may here be mentioned that the number of British
officials has risen from a lew hundred in the earlier years of the occupation to upwards
of sixteen hundred at the present day, with scales of pay different from those enjoyed
• t' ie Egyptians. Ihese higher scales, if amply justified by special circumstances,
weie readily lepiesented as constituting a grievance*
Another feature of Egyptian life has undoubtedly contributed to the unrest. As
British officials have increased in number they have more and more lived apart from
the Egyptian community, and their chief residential quarter on the Island of Ghezireh
has come to be a self-contained community, furnished, like an Indian cantonment,
with a complete equipment for social intercourse, sport and physical exercise. This
has added to the amenities of life for the official class, but it has withdrawn them from
society with Egyptians and tended to create a British enclave An area of land belonging to one country and entirely surrounded by land of just one other country. from which Egyptians
a J, e excluded. W e are aware of the difficulties on both sides which stand in the way
of fiee and unembarrassed relations between men and women of different races and
customs, but when the necessary allowance has been made it must, we think, be said
that the increasing segregation of the British community, which has been a feature
of lecent yeais, has been a cause of estrangement between British and Egyptians and
made the fact of an alien occupation more obtrusive than it need have been.
v e have noticed with pleasure the cordial and intimate relations which many old
residents in Egypt, and not a few senior officials and their wives, have established
with then Egyptian neighbours, and we have seen much evidence of the value and
mliuence ol these Jriendships in the recent times of stress and difficulty. We are
convinced that it would greatly help if more efforts were made to cultivate these
neigh loum lelations. 1 he forms and conventions of conduct should be studied and
carelull) lespected by British residents in Egypt and visitors to Egypt. It should be
rea ised, especially by the latter, that altogether disproportionate harm may be done
y o ences agamst good taste which, though trivial in themselves, cause comment and
scam a . It should, in general, be the aim of the British residents and visitors
rea ■ ( own the barriers that exist rather than to create new ones, to enter as far
to
as
possible into the life of the Egyptian people, to learn enough of their language to
ma ve socni contact possible and agreeable, and to avoid the minor causes of offence
which in the aggregate become mischievous.
p . .^? n l iailf b a criticism not infrequently heard that the quality of the
.i * 1 I s , 1 ° Cla 8 has deteriorated does not seem to us to be justified. There are many
0 capacity in Egypt to-day, as there
a net oth e rs of r ^ ? 11 \r t 1 1 si . 1 1 ^ .. 1 . 1 ...^-. ■ .,+■ ♦.. .. ■ sense
Agents
five British
a field for successive
accident of
British officials, who
o ua s oi uign capacity in Egypt to-day, as there were in former times men of
excep 1011 a and others of only moderate calibre. But the critical sense of the
-'gyp lans i ias been greatly developed by progress and contact with other countries,
am ie > ]av ® . ecome ni ore exacting than the older generation with regard to
standards of efficiency. & a
Again, since the letirement in 1907 of Lord Cromer, there have been no less than
oi High Commissioners, and Egypt has felt herself to some extent
experiments. The result of these repeated changes, due to the
circumstances, tended to increase the independence of the permanent
r i *y ere Inore co ncerue d departmental efficiency than with
taintv 0 aml 0 insta}yiff W ^ l e h'Syptian observers they conveyed an impression of uncer-
Anothei contributory cause of the general discontent ivas the manifest insuccess
o e< uca iona po icy lesulting in the production of an unnecessarily large and ever-
incieasin^ nurn er ol candidates for official posts, provided with examination certificates,
u es i u ,e o any real educational culture. It was necessary in the initial stage ta
V um I 61 ,- 0 y° un S n ion to such a standard of efficiency as would enable them to
un ei ave c enca duties in State departments which had hitherto been largely
P Z 1 *!™ ? Don ~ ^Syphans, and to prepare pupils for the higher colleges of medicine,
a gmeering. But here again there seems, until quite recently, to have been
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