تقارير وأوراق للجنة الإدارة المصرية [و‎‎١‎١] (١٠٨/٢١)

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EXTRACT
PROM
WAR CABINET, 233.
Minutes of a Meeting of the War Cabinet held at 10, Downing Street, S. 17.,
on Friday, September 14, 1917, at 11*30 a.m.
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The Future
Government of
Egypt.
11. The War Cabinet had before them a memorandum sub
mitted by the Acting Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, which
had been drawn up by Lord Edward Cecil, the Financial Adviser
to the Egyptian Government, and minutes thereon by Lord
Hardinge of Penshurst and Sir Ronald Graham.
Lord Robert Cecil stated that when he first went to the Foreign
Office he found considerable difficulty in getting papers dealing
with Egypt, there being no proper organisation in the Foreign Office
for obtaining any knowledge of, or dealing with, the many internal
matters of Egyptian government. The main channels of com
munication with Egypt were private letters between Sir Reginald
Wingate and Lord Hardinge. Lord Robert Cecil had considered
the desirability of handing over the control of Egypt to some other
office, such as the Colonial Office, but there appeared to be no
existing office suitable. His brother, Lord Edward Cecil, came
home in the spring to take up military duty, and informed him that
from the Egyptian side he thought that there must be a lack of
organisation at the British end, not so much in matters diplomatic
as in matters administrative. Lord Robert Cecil stated that he felt
considerable anxiety regarding this situation from the Parliamentary
point of view. Supposing there were trouble in Egypt, we should have