Report of the Special Mission to Egypt under Lord Milner, and related papers [‎15r] (29/473)

This document is the property of His Britannic Majesty's Government
THE EGYPTIAN PROPOSALS.
MEMORANDUM BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR.
I venture to ask most respectfully, but at the same time most urgently, that the
Cabinet may be permitted to have an opportunity of at any rate discussing the
proposals which have been published in all the newspapers for giving independence to
Egypt. I read these proposals for the first time in yesterday’s newspapers with very
great bewilderment.
The Foreign Office telegrams of the 21st August (Nos. 750 and 751) which reached
me last night show that the story published in the newspapers is in all respects true,
and that the proposals have been simultaneously communicated to the Press, the public
and the British representatives in Egypt before either the Cabinet or Parliament had
been allowed to know of their existence.
I submit that this procedure raises a very great difficulty. While the British will
be held committed to approving proposals of this character, the Egyptian Nationalists
will be free to take them merely as a starting point for further demands ; thus, even
from the point of view of bargaining, the disclosures which have taken place seem to be
regrettable. The cession of territory which has been definitely incorporated in the
British Dominions is, however, a matter which requires the assent not only of the
Cabinet, but of Crown and Parliament.
Coming to the actual proposals themselves, one must ask oneself, first, are they
real or are they a manoeuvre ? If they are real, they mean that we are giving up
Egypt. Egypt is to become an independent country, which will make a Treaty of
Alliance with the United Kingdom, accord us certain military and naval facilities, and
act in foreign affairs in general conformity with our wishes and interests. Egypt will
be free to conduct her internal affairs as she pleases, i.e., she may substitute the
Communist for the individualist system of society. She may raise a large army by
conscription or she may abolish the existing Egyptian Army altogether. She may
erect a customs tariff or adopt Free Trade. She may appoint ambassadors throughout
the world. All these imprescriptible rights of sovereignty are to be conferred upon
Egypt on paper.
Alternatively, we may be told this is mere camouflage. Not one Egyptian from
the Khedive downwards will be able to act otherwise than in accordance with British
advice. Although. Egypt will be free in theory to do all these things, in practice she
will do all she is told. She will be ruled under such systems and through such agents
as the British Government choose and under no other. Having formally divested
ourselves of every shadow of legal right, we shall nevertheless exercise final and absolute
power. It is true there will be no Army of Occupation, but the same troops living in
the same barracks will be called “ The British Army for maintaining the communications
with the East.” When a state of disorder arises in Cairo, British soldiers who are
called upon to fire on the crowd will not be shooting in order to suppress tumult in
Egypt. They will be “ safeguarding our communications with the East,” &e.
If this, as I expect, is really what is meant by the new instrument, I can only
think that the Egyptian Nationalists must be very great simpletons if they let it rest
there. Their demand is for the effective and responsible control of their own country
and the right to govern or misgovern it as they please. It is because this has never
been accorded to them, and never can be accorded to them while we remain in the
country, that they are discontented. It is not the empty form of independence which
they seek, but the reality. Is the British nation willing to concede that reality ? If
not, will the British resistance to the concession of that reality be rendered more
difficult or more easy by the concession of the form ? 1 think it will be rendered vastly
more difficult.
Incidentally, I may observe that it sweeps away altogether any claim which we
might make for recovering any portion of 'the cost of the garrison from the Egyptian
taxpayer. This garrison is declared by us to be in Egypt for a purely Imperial
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