Correspondence with A J Balfour, Sir R Wingate, Lord Allenby, Lord Milner and others on Egypt [‎90r] (179/300)

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Interior and Justice end Finance; the Seniors in the other
Ministries are mostly technical and have very little to do
with the general governing of the country outside their ovm
departmental affairs, although the Education system of the
country is a very greet co.use of discontent among the
natives. But among the very few above mentioned who M count*’
in Cairo, there is not*a single one who combines outstanding
ability with the power to obtain and hold the respect and
confidence of all parties, British, Foreign and native.
Brunyate, the la.te Acting Financial Adviser, is a brilliantly
able man, but has made a woeful hash of it all by his be.d
manners, brusqueness, overbearing attitude, &c., and Wingate,
was not strong or capable enough to keep him in order. The
result is that everyone is furious with him *- it was he who
caused Rushdi * s resignation and precipita.ted the outbreak,
though that was only the match that started the blaze. Apart
from him (except for one Dowson, a. very promising youngish
man who is Finance Under Secretary, who is fully occupied and
has nothing to do with the Interior) all the others are
small men of poor calibre, and so far no one has shewn any
tendency to rise above his fellows.
Of Allenby I know and can say nothing except that he has
got the country quiet, and the natives like and respect him.
He can f t in fact, do much more until he has had more time to
look round.
As regards the Senior British people, their trouble is
that they have all been trained to look for and follow a lead,
either,Cromer*s, Gorst*s or Kitchener’s - all rather sudden
changes'. Latterly there has been no palley and no lead and no
one has been able to discover or exhibit originality or
independence of ideas or character. This may not be their
fault quite, but I do blame them for getting out of touch with
affairs, especially with affairs outside Cairo. Kitchener
went everywhere, saw and talked to everyone and knew exactly
what was going on everywhere. Since he departed hardly a
single Senior Official has even been outside Cairo and into
the" villages - or at any rate, if any have gone it has been
far too seldom. Also, the worst of official life is that
Seniors ere apt to ignore their juniors, and their juniors’
opinions, and in this case have repeatedly disregarded warmings
such as they were. After all nothing much mattered except
winning the war, and there was bound to have been trouble with
the swelled-headed ”intelligenzia” as some cynic called them,
sonner or latter, but it never need have been so widespread.