Typescript and printed cabinet papers and parliamentary papers on events in Egypt [‎116v] (232/520)

28
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Enclosure 1 in No. 35.
Coni m unication to be Addressed to the Sultan by the High
Commissioner.
Your Highness,
I have the honour to bring to your Highness’s notice that certain
passages of the explanatory note which 1 addressed to you on the
3rd December, 1921, were interpreted, to my great disappointment,
in a manner not in accordance with the intention and policy of His
Majesty’s Government.
2. Judging by many comments which have been published on
the subject of this note, it would appear that many Egyptians were
under the impression that Great Britain was about to abandon her
liberal and favourable attitude towards Egyptian aspirations and to
make use of her special position in Egypt in order to maintain a
political and administrative regime incompatible with the freedom
she had offered.
3. Such an interpretation of the intentions of His Majesty’s
Government was quite mistaken. On the contrary, the explanatory
note emphasised the dominating principle that the guarantees
claimed by Great Britain are not designed to involve the con
tinuance of an actual or virtual protectorate. Great Britain, as it is
stated therein, sincerely desires to see “an Egypt enjoying the
national prerogatives and the international position of a sovereign
State.’’
4. If Egyptians have regarded these guarantees as being out of
keeping with the position of a free country they have, on the other
hand, lost sight of the fact that Great Britain has been obliged to
claim them out of consideration for her own security in face of a
situation which demands great prudence on her part, particularly in
the matter of the disposition of her troops. Present world conditions,
however, and the state of effervescence which has prevailed in Egypt
since the armistice are- not permanent factors, and it is to be hoped
that while, on the one hand, the former will eventually improve, on
the other hand, the time will come when, in the language of that
note, Egypt’s record will give confidence in her own guarantees.
5. As to any desire to interfere in the internal administration of
Egypt, His Majesty’s Government have sufficiently stated, and
repeat, that their most ardent desire is to place in Egyptian hands
the conduct of their own affairs. The draft agreement proposed by
Great Britain did not depart from this idea, and in making provision
for the presence of two British officials in the Ministries of Finance
and Justice, it was not her intention to use these two officials for the
purpose of intervening in Egyptian affairs, but solely in order to
preserve the contact requisite for protecting foreign interests.
(). Such is the sole bearing of the guarantees that were demanded
by Great Britain. They were claimed without any desire to impede
Egyptians enjoying the full rights of a national Government.
7. Animated as she is by these intentions, it will be understood
that it is repugnant to Great Britain on the one hand to see
Egyptians delay by their own acts the realisation of an ideal aimed
at by both parties, and on the other to he compelled herself to
intervene to re-establish order when it is threatened in such a way
as to arouse the fears of foreigners and to involve the interests of
foreign Powers. It would be much to be regretted if Egyptians
should see in the exceptional measures which have recently been