تقارير وأوراق للجنة الإدارة المصرية [و‎‎٩] (١٠٨/١٧)

7
These are questions with which the Foreign Office alone, from its long and
intimate experience of such questions in Turkey and elsewhere, is competent to deal,
but they will certainly require at least another live years for negotiation and solution,
entailing as they do the preparation of codes, the creation of new tribunals and the
co-operation of foreign Powers. When these have been satisfactorily settled it will
be sufficient time to raise the question whether the period of transaction has not
terminated and whether a new control should be set up to take the place of the
Foreign Office. Nothing could be more inopportune than any such administrative
change at the present moment, when the political situation in Syria and Arabia is
in the melting pot and the chief concern of our policy in the Middle East, conducted
as it is through the Residency at Cairo, is to resist foreign encroachments and the
pretensions of France and Italy in Arabia and the Red Sea. The same situation
prevails in Western Arabia, where we have to play the role of mediator between the
Italians and the Idris.
As for the responsibility of England for the internal government of Egypt, the
change of status caused by the Proclamation of a Protectorate has made but little
alteration. The responsibility was great before, and is equally so now. The
Administration will also remain practically the same until the changes mentioned
a above have been negotiated at the end of the war and put into execution. No new
and costly machinery is needed at present. The political control and administra
tion of Egypt are working smoothly and effectively. There is no agitation, and
little crime, and the people are very prosperous and contented. There is therefore
t no immediate necessity for any change.
The High Commissioner, Sir R, Wingate, is a thoroughly experienced adminis-
trator, in whom the Government have confidence, while the record of his administra
tion in the Sudan is remarkable. Thanks to his influence and popularity, he has
been able, with a handful of troops, to maintain peace in a fanatical country, while
the Mohammedan world w r as seething with unrest owing to the entry of Turkey into
the war.
r t. is stated in the Memorandum that “ the control of Egyptian affairs is
intimately bound up with other Near Eastern problems.” This is perfecly true, but
the association goes further than Lord E. Cecil seems to be aware. It begins with
the European Colonies in North Africa, and extends through Abyssinia to the Red
Sea littoral and Arabia. Egyptian affairs are nearly affected by our relations
with France and Italy in all these countries. Whatever may be the future of
Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Syria, Cairo tends to become more than ever the centre
of British interests in the Near East, and the point from which we influence the
rulers of the Hedjez and other important Mohammedan countries. Many of these
Chiefs will be subjected to competing European influences in one way or another,
and cannot, for a very long time ahead, be effectively dealt with by any other Imperial
organisation than the Foreign Office. Yet the Memorandum contemplates the
withdrawal from the Foreign Office of the Arab Bureau in Cairo (the main Intelli-
* gence Office) and its subordination to the new and independent Department. This
can only mean a complete divorce between Arab policy and the Foreign Office.
Further comment seems needless.
There remains the question of Turkey. Egypt will in any case be sensitive
to what may happen in Asiatic Turkey. If the Ottoman power survives Egypt
will be deeply influenced bv events there. Sir R. Wingate considers this influence
so important as to be likely to force us to annexation in order to prevent Turkish
intrigue in Egypt. Everything here also seems to point to the necessity for the
treatment of our interests in the two countries by the same Department.
Analysis of the Memorandum gives the impresion that its author is preoccupied
with the future of Egyptian internal administration. If this is so, it is all the
more curious that there should be no mention throughout the Memorandum of the
existence of the foreign colonies in Egypt. Their importance is well known. It
is brought out in a Note by Sir W. Brunyate enclosed in a recent despatch from
Cairo on the question of the annexation of Egypt. The leading business and
professional men in Egypt, who provide the brains of the country, are drawn from
a population of about' 200,000 Europeans including the British colony. The
question of the right government of Egypt must be misjudged unless the problem
of co-operation with these people is faced in connection with that of educating
C; and using, when possible, Egyptian native elements. Such co-operation must
inevitably be best understood by the Foreign Office. Present developments are
eminently satisfactory. A commission is sitting in which, under the guidance of
[968—2] ’ D