Typescript and printed cabinet papers and parliamentary papers on events in Egypt [‎93r] (185/520)

[This Document is the Property of Kis Britannic Majesty s Government.]
CONFIDENTIAL.
Communication from His Majesty's High Commissioner to His Highness the
Sultan of Egypt, December —, 1921.
Your Highness,
I HxWE the honour, in accordance with instructions received from His
Majesty’s Government, to place before your Highness the following statement of
their views in connection with the negotiations that have recently taken place with
the delegation despatched by your Highness under the presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. of his Excellency
Adly Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. . His Majesty’s Government have presented to Adly Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
the draft proposals for a treaty between the British Empire and Egypt which they
were prepared to recommend to His Majesty the King and to Parliament,
and have learnt with keen disappointment that these are not acceptable to him. They
regret it the more because they regarded their proposals as liberal in character and
far-reaching in effect, and because they cannot hold out any prospect of reconsidera
tion of the principle on which they were framed. It is therefore proper that they
should acquaint your Highness fully with the main considerations by which they
were guided and with the spirit in which their proposals were made.
One dominant fact has governed the association of Great Britain and Egypt
for fortv years and must always govern it—namely, the close coincidence between
Great Britain’s interests in Egypt and the interests of Egypt herself. The
independence and the prosperity of the Egyptian people are both of great
importance to the British Empire. Egypt lies upon the main line of
communications between Great Britain and the King's dominions to the east.
The whole territory of Egypt is indeed essential to those communications, since the
fortunes of Egypt are inseparable from the security of the Suez Canal Zone. The
immunity of Egypt from the dominant influence of any other Great Power is there
fore of primary importance to India, Australia, New Zealand and all His Majesty’s
Eastern colonies and dependencies; it affects the welfare and safety of nearly
350.000.000 of His Majesty’s subjects. The prosperity of Egypt is also important
to them, not merely because Great Britain and Egypt are each other’s best customers,
but because any serious danger to financial or commercial interests in Egypt invites
the intervention of other Powers and threatens her independence. These have been
the governing motives of British association with Egypt, and they are as powerful
now as in the past.
The general success of that association during the generation which preceded
the great war was universally recognised. When Great Britain first began to take an
active interest in Egypt, the Egyptian people were a prey to financial chaos and
administrative anarchy. They were at the mercy of every comer, and could not have
resisted those fatal forms of foreign exploitation which undermine a nation’s self-
respect and destroy its fibre. If the Egyptian people are a vigorous and self-respecting
nation to-day, thev owe that recovery largely to British assistance and advice. They
have been secured against foreign intervention; they have been helped to create an
efficient system of administration; large numbers of them have been trained in the arts
of government; their power has steadily grown; their finances have prospered beyond
all expectation; the welfare of all classes has been laid on firm foundations. There
has been no shadow of exploitation in this rapid development. Great Britain has
sought for herself no financial gain or commercial privilege. The Egyptian nation^
has garnered all the fruits of her counsel and help.
The outbreak of war between the Great European Powers in 1914 made the
association between the British Empire and Egypt of necessity more close. When the
Ottoman Empire joined the side of Germany, not only Britain’s communications but
Egypt’s independence were forthwith jeopardised. The declaration of the
protectorate was a recognition of the fact that only by common action under a single
command could the common menace to the Empire and to Egypt be effectively repelled.
In the extension of the war brought about by Turkey many thousands of the King’s
subjects from India. Australia and New Zealand as well as from Great Britain were
maimed or killed. Their graves in Gallipoli. Palestine and Irak stand as witness
of the great effort which Turkish intervention cost the British Commonwealth.
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