Typescript and printed cabinet papers and parliamentary papers on events in Egypt [‎94r] (187/520)

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desire, which they have long entertained, to provide for the ever-advancing develop
ment of native talent by an increase in the number of Egyptians employed in every
branch, and notably in the higher branches of the Administration, hitherto too exten
sively filled by Europeans. They are willing to pursue in consultation with your
Hignness s Government the negotiations in foreign courts necessary for the aboli
tion of the Capitulations, so that the international situation may be clear when the
Egyptian legislation necessary to take the place of the Capitulations is ready to be
passed, they would wish that the powers now exercised by the commander-in-chief
under martial law should be exercised only under the Egyptian civil law by the
Egypt^ 11 Government, and they will gladly withdraw martial law as soon as the
Act of Indemnity which is indispensable for the protection of that Government as
w-ell as of the British authorities in Egypt has been enacted and become operative in
all the civil and criminal courts in Egypt.
With regard to the future, His Majesty's Government desire to state in plain
terms the policy which they intend to pursue. They understand that the proposals
presented to your Highness’s delegation were rejected on the ground that the safe
guards for British and foreign interests contained in them would be fatal to the
genuine exercise of self-government. They deeply regret that the maintenance of
British troops in Egypt and the association of British officials with the Ministries
of Justice and Finance should be so gravely misunderstood. The progress of Egypt
towards her ideals will not only be retarded, but completely jeopardised, if "her
people are tempted to indulge their national aspirations, however sound
and legitimate in themselves, without sufficient regard to the facts which
govern international life. Nothing is gained by minimising national obligations
and exaggerating national rights. Extremist leaders who preach in this vein are
not a stimulus but a menace to Egyptian development. By their influence on the
course of events, they have repeatedly challenged the interests and provoked the
fears of foreign Powers; and they have sought to affect the outcome of these negotia
tions during the past few weeks by subversive appeals to popular ignorance and
passion. His Majesty's Government do not consider that they would be
consulting Egypt's welfare by making concessions to agitation of this kind :
and Egypt will make no progress until her responsible leaders show the will and
strength to put it down. The world is suffering in many places at the present time
from the cult of a fanatical and purely disruptive type of nationalism. His
Majesty's Government will set their face against it as firmly in Egypt as elsewhere.
Those who yield to it only make more necessary and so prolong the maintenance of
those foreign sanctions which they denounce.
In these conditions, for Egypt’s interest as much as for their own. His
Majesty's Government will continue unshaken in their aims as Egypt’s advisers and
trustees. It is not sufficient for them to know that they could exercise the right of
re-entry into Egypt, if, left to her own unaided counsels, she should revert to the
waste and disorder of the last century. They desire to see the work of Lord Cromer’s
generation completed, not recommenced. Thev do not aim at keeping Egypt in
tutelage. On the contrary, they desire to fortify the constructive elements in
L Egyptian nationalism, to give them scope, and to bring nearer the full attainment of
the national ideal. But they must insist on effective rights and powers to safeguard
both Egypt’s interests and their own until the Egyptian people have shown the
capacity themselves to preserve their couiltry from internal disorder and its inevitable
corollary, the intervention of foreign Powers.
The true line of advance for the Egyptian people is by co-operation with the
British Empire, and not by antagonism to it. In this spirit of co-operation
His Majesty's Government on their side are prepared to consider any
methods which may be suggested for carrying out the substance of their
proposals, whenever your Highness's Government may so desire. They cannot,
however, modify the principle on which theii* proposals are based or relax the
essential safeguards which they contain. The future of Egypt under these proposals
would be in the Egyptian people’s own hands. The more clearly your people
recognise the identity of British interests with their own. the less necessary will
safeguards become. It is for the responsible leaders of Egypt, in this second
generation of her association with Great Britain, to prove by their acceptance and
steady use of the national status now open to them that the vital interests of the
Empire in their country may be progressively entrusted to their care.
I am,
Your Highness’s, &c.