Report of the Special Mission to Egypt under Lord Milner, and related papers [‎44r] (87/473)

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of the Party of the People, and he had to be checkeki.
With the minister'e approval, a local magnate may be
allowed to render the life of hia neighbours impossible.
.«&ter can be cut off or diverted, crops burnt and up-
rooted, stock driven away, etc., without any evidence
being obtainable ae to how it all came about. Hiring
.ny time at the Interior foreign land-owners and band
Companies, including British concerns, were frequently
subjected to such treatment. They complained to the
Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , or to me, or to a British official; a British
Inspector was sent to the spot, explanations were demanded
from the i^udir and, unless there was improvement and
redress, the local Hudir or Omdeh lost his post. «ill
any such niachinery be retained or not? I may add that
the ex-Khedive used to be one of the worst offenders in
his efforts to £?r&b his neighbours’ lard and to bully and
intimidate neighbouring land-owners. The local Native
ikithorities would never lift a finger in such cases, and
it was only by purely British agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. Lhat His Hijmess’s
machinations could be stopped.
There will, of course, be no Adviser in the Interior
under the new arrangement, tut will there be any high
Iritish Official at all in that Ministry? If, for instanc
a British Hi rector-General of Public Security is retained,
this will be very important. The British District Inspect
or will have someone to whom he can report. Unless there
is such a high official, I hardly think that any of the best
District Inspectors will remain, nor would the position of
the British Police Commandants at Cairo and Alexandria —
and it seems essential that British officers should for
some/