Report of the Special Mission to Egypt under Lord Milner, and related papers [‎146v] (295/473)

6
evidence and advice of the chief British officials was freely available to us A
from the first, and we are greatly indebted to them for the ready help they gave us.
With their aid we were enabled not only to gain a fairly comprehensive view of
recent events, but to make an exhaustive examination of the organisation and
personnel of every department of the Egyptian Government. This work was divided
up between sub-committees, who reported to the Mission, which also assembled in full
strength to hear the views of the highest British officials, as well as those of iSir
William Brunyate, the late Acting Financial Adviser to the Egyptian Government,
who was present in Cairo during the latter part of our stay. Meantime, the legal
member of the Mission, Mr (now Sir Cecil) Hurst, while co-operating as far as
possible in these activities, devoted the greater part of his time to enquiring into the
judicial system and the modifications best adapted to bring it into harmony with
present requirements. Similarly Sir Owen Thomas, besides serving on one of the
sub-committees just referred to, paid special attention to the study of agricultural a
conditions, and visited a number of estates, public and private, to make himself
familiar with the methods of cultivation and the life of the people. The whole
Mission, with the exception of one member who was otherwise engaged, passed the
inside of a week at Alexandria, where opportunity was afforded us of coming into j
contact with the important foreign communities of the great commercial centre of
Egypt. We were there able to hear the views of the French, Italian and Greek, as
well as of the British Chamber of Commerce. Many centres of activity in Upper
and Lower Egypt were also visited by individual members of the Mission, who com
municated their impressions to their colleagues, and, in spite of the endeavours
already described to prevent our getting into direct contact with the local population,
valuable experience was thus gained and placed on record.
Two of our number. General Sir John Maxwell and Sir Owen Thomas, also
paid a visit of several weeks to the Sudan, and the impressions they brought back
were a valuable supplement to the information we had already obtained irom the
evidence of British and native residents in that country, whom we had been able to
see in Cairo.
The manifold activities which we have briefly summarised kept us all verv busy
during the months of January and February. Towards the end of the latter month,
as the time available for our enquiries in Egypt was drawing to a close,
since several of our members were obliged to be back in England
before the end of March, we began to hold a number of meetings for
the purpose of collating the information obtained and comparing the
views which we had severally formed. It at once became apparent that,
in view of the immense mass of material and the number of points requiring
thorough discussion, it would be impossible for us to draw up a Report during the
remainder of our time in Egypt, especially as interviews still occupied a good deal
of it. The preparation of our Report had, therefore, necessarily to be deferred until
after our return to England. At the same time these preliminary discussions
revealed a remarkable unanimity between us on certain cardinal points, and we even
drew up. before leaving Cairo, though only in outline and subject to such modifica
tions as further discussion might suggest, a series of propositions in which we were
all able provisionally to agree.
These propositions ranged over the whole field of our enquiry and have formed
the groundwork of the nresent Report. It may, therefore, be convenient at this
stage to review the results of our investigations in Egypt and the conclusions to
which they had led us.
* I *
n.
Provisional Conclusions arrived at in Egypt.
(A .)—Causes of the Recent Disorders and Existing Unrest. v >.
1. Prior to the War.
The disorders which broke out in March 1919 were brought to a climax by
specific events connected with the war, but they can by no means be attributed
solely to recent or contemporary conditions and the ground had been nrenared
through a long antecedent period. 1 P
It appears to be frequently assumed in current talk and writing in this
country that Egypt is a part of the British Empire. This is not and never has been
the case.