Report of the Special Mission to Egypt under Lord Milner, and related papers [‎169v] (341/473)

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and will also, through her representatives abroad, support and further the interests
of Egypt and will collaborate with the Egyptian representatives to this end.
(The above addition, while rendered palatable to the Egyptian Government by the
reciprocal form in which it is couched, is intended to prevent a foreign policy,
clandestine, or inimical to British interests, being pursued at Cairo by the Egyptian
Foreign Office or the foreign representatives there, behind the back or over the head of
the High Commissioner.)
Add the following new paragraph:—
4 (ii). As a temporary measure and until the new regime set up by the treaty
is firmly established, Great Britain shall also enjoy the right of using the existing
military establishments in the neighbourhood of Cairo and Alexandria for the
maintenance of troops, and shall also be entitled to maintain a guard for the
protection of the Abu Zaabal wireless telegraphy station in Qalioubia.
No rights similar to those conferred on Great Britain by these provisions shall
be conferred on any foreign Power.
(The first of these two clauses will enable British military contingents, in
accordance with the strongly-expressed opinions of Lord Allenby and General Congreve,
to be maintained, say for a period of five or three years, either in the Kasr-el-Nil
Barracks in Cairo, or perhaps preferably in the Abbassia Barracks near the Heliopolis
Aerodrome a few' miles outside, also in the Mustafa Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. Barracks near Alexandria
and in the neighbourhood of the Aboukir Aerodrome.
The second clause is intended to prevent Consular Guards from being placed by
any foreign Power for the protection of their representatives or nationals in Cairo or
elsewhere.)
4 (ha). Add the following paragraph :—
The use at all times of one or more aerodromes, as may be arranged, shall be
secured to British aircraft. Great Britain shall also enjoy the use of the A bu Zaabal
wireless telegraphy station in Qalioubia.
(This paragraph is intended to provide for the use of the above stations—which
are vital to our aerial and wireless communications, in times of peace as well as in
times of war.)
4 (iii) to read as follows :—
Egypt will appoint, in consultation with His Majesty s Government, a i inancial
Adviser, to whom shall be entrusted in due course the powers at present exercised
by the Commissioners of the Debt. He shall- be kept fully informed on all matters
connected with the Department, and shall enjoy the right of access to the Minister.
4 (iv) to read as follows:—
Egypt will appoint, in consultation with His Majesty’s Government, an official
in the Ministry of the Interior and an official in the Ministry of Justice. Each of
these officials shall be kept fully informed on all matters connected with his
Department, and shall enjoy the right of access to the Minister. They shall be ,
responsible respectively under the Minister for the conduct of matters relating to •'
the maintenance of order, and to the administration of the law as affecting foreigners.
(I have eliminated from the Milner Report the disputed passage about the liberty
of the Egyptian Government to consult the Financial Adviser—which they might
perhaps have declined to exercise—and have sought by the new words to provide for
his being fully acquainted with all that passes in the Department, and having access at
all times to the Minister.
I suggest similar provisions for the two officials in the Ministries of the Interior
and Justice, but I do not call them Advisers. They may or may not be Under
secretaries of State. I further assign a definite sphere of responsibility to each.
Incidentally—and this in my view is most important—the existence and powers of
these three officials will enable the High Commissioner to be kept in sufficiently close
contact with what is passing in the Egyptian administration.)
4 (viii). New article.
Egypt will undertake not to appoint any foreign officers or officials to any of
the public services without the previous concurrence of the British Representative.