Report of the Special Mission to Egypt under Lord Milner, and related papers [‎173r] (348/473)

[Tkia Document is the Property of HU Britannic Majesty s Government.]
Printed for the Cabinet. February 1921.
CONFIDENTIAL.
—: tj u
PROPOSED CHANGE IN THE STATUS OF EGYPT.
I CIRCULATE to my colleagues a memorandum by the Chief of the Air Staff on
the proposed change in the status of Egypt.
W. -S. c.
February 1921.
Air Staff Memorandum on the Proposed Change in the Status of Egypt.
The Air Staff has had under review the proposals for a changed status of Egypt,
and wish to amplify, in the light of various Cabinet papers that have been circulated,
their memorandum of the 25th August on this subject. (See Appendix II to
C.P.-1803.)
The Value of Egypt to the Air Force.
The value of Egypt to the Air Force is comprised in the following:—
1. Her position as a junction of aerial and wireless communications.
In this respect the position of Egypt is unique. 2,300 miles from London, 3,000
from Bombay, 5,000 from Cape Town, she stands at the main cross-roads of our aerial
highways. Malta is 1,200 miles, Bagdad 850, Khartoum 1,000 and Aden 1,600 miles;
all of these are important centres of British influence and within the reach of low
powered wireless sets.
The value of Egypt in any scheme of Imperial communication is thus self-evident;
no other country can take its place.
2. Her command over the narrowest and most easily-blocked sea passage on the
shortest route to the East.
T1 le vital importance of the Suez Canal to the sea communications of the British
Empire is an axiom ; its peculiar danger lies in the fact that it is the narrowest and
most easily-blocked portion of our only short route to the East. Egypt commands the
canal throughout its length, and though her people may not be martially inclined, it
does not require an extensive military operation to cause interruption of traffic. Apart
from such military operation, surprise aerial attack on a series of ships in the canal
would result in a serious blockage at a time when the smallest interruption of commu
nications might have the most serious results. A large portion of the Air Force is
constantly operating in the East, and until our Eastern dependencies develope, these
forces are based on the United Kingdom for purposes of technical supply.
3. Her value as a convenient central base for the Eastern organisation of the Royal
Air Force.
The Air Force in the Near and Middle East requires a centre closer than Great
Britain from which its work may he supervised, on which it may to some extent
(increasing as years go by) be based, and where its semi-mobile reserve tor the various
theatres may be stationed in a climate comparable to that they may be called upon to
endure in Eastern service. The position of Egypt on the highway of seaborne traffic
between Europe and the Last (including East Africa) is such that no other theatre
could so well serve the purposes of the Royal Air Force as a Central Eastern, base.
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