Report of the Special Mission to Egypt under Lord Milner, and related papers [‎98r] (197/473)

Lw-RD LILI'Jri'R Bald tt> Jio h.a.d besn oc*7upied f*or pmctioiilly
months in c r-nv id erring / tho question of Egypt, ?or
four months it had taken up practically his whole time, and
for seven months the 1 greater part of it. He thought that
everyone would admit that if .Egypt were a friendly and allied
country which was decently governed and able to stand on its
own feet, and if it wore prepared to give us of its own accord
a strategic base at all tines and to place its harbours
$
railways, and oths^lrieans of communication at our service not
only in time of war but even in time of pevace, it would be
better, "mm the purely British point of view, than if Egypt
were to be a British Possession, kept in subjection by force
and requiring in time of peace a large permanent garrison,
He foresaw considerable danger if the present situation were
v. com o
allowed to continue,!--* tt should ’ r / . a reproduction of
that in Southern and Western Ireland. •
It was rapidly
movinr that way, and quite needlessly so. The quarrel with
the Iris/ people was really a secular one, whereas in Egypt
the trouble was r eally a new one and was, in his opinion,
due to remedial causes. He saw no reason why, with good
statesmanship and patience, we slould not get on the same
tolerable terms with the Egyptians as w* v'ere twenty years
previously, Even now there was r.o very bad Reeling amongst
the greater number of people in Egypt towards the Britisn.
The Pellahin did not really care
d*cut ary pclit i cal "/and this was even tree of the Fefclahin
in the large towns. In fact, it might be said that 90 per
cert, o' the people in Egypt did not take v*ry rrhch interest
on*- way or, th r> other, and he was quite sure that a very large
number of them, did not know what the extremists were fighting
for. To put it broadly, the Fellah Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. neither loved nor hated
us, and,as he had always been governed by sov.e-body, he was