Report of the Special Mission to Egypt under Lord Milner, and related papers [‎60r] (119/473)

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Apjj.
strength of the spirit of Egyptian Nationalism which dominated
ths 10 p^r esnt. op the population to which he waa referring.
Many men droadod at heart the withdrawal of British influence
fro. Egypt, but no ? an was prepared to stand up publicly and
say that he was in favour of a Protectorate; or even, without
going this far, no nan was prepared to stand up and say that
he did not want Egyptian govemeant. If anybody ■•as ev-en
BUS p«etod o * favouring in any -'ay British rule, he was imme
diately hauled over the coals and at once made to toe the
line and make a public ccnfossion of his orthodoxy. The
Sultan himself had said once to him (lord Milner) when he
was talking of his weakness and unpopularity, that he could be
the most popular ran in Egypt on the following day if he
followed the example of th« Princes and agreed with their
manifesto. It would thus bo seer, that wo were up against a
solid phalanx of Egyptian opinion, and in his (Lord hilner's)
view, if we wore to keep any control over the country other
wise than by martial law we must break up the 10 per cent, of
the mor< educated classes and g:t sore of thev on our side,
„ ror ie, in order to do so, it was necessary to make some con
siderable sacrifices. In the opinion of the Commission of
which he was Chairman, it would be possible to re-establish
genuine co-operation between the British and Egyptians in
v ,f b rr to tb'3 latter, -tho
the govemr'it.nt or
, _ th3JI:8elV^C
forty years past had been saying they could go -m
, which vre contemplated giving to
th^ oaT-e ^.ndep rd^nt staLUo ^.nr^xi
the much less civilised Arabs in Mesopotamia after a much
shorter period of tutelage. He noticed ‘hat the Secretary
of State for India had suggested that his Commission had beer
»a. ^ was not sc •
bargaining with the Egyptian extremists. .1 -
Adly Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. was essentially a moderate, and '-as not
an ti_n-itifih; he had be-nr.oke instrumental \n b.ingin.,
about conversations than any other man in Egypt, and H,,d
in his (Lord Milner’s) opinion the best politi