Report of the Special Mission to Egypt under Lord Milner, and related papers [‎198r] (398/473)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
Printed for the Cabinet. February 192J.
L ^s
CONFIDENTIAL.
THE EGYPTIAN SITUATION.
Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
I MUST ask the Cabinet to come to an early (preliminary) decision on the subject
of Egypt. It cannot indeed either in honour or with safety be delayed. Acting upon
the instructions of the Cabinet at our last meeting on the subject (4th January), I
forwarded a copy of Lord Milner’s report to Lord Allenby on the bth January. In
my covering despatch I said that we proposed to lay Lord Milner’s report before
Parliament at (he opening of the session, that it should be simultaneously published in
Egypt, that an advance copy should be given to the Sultan, and that the latter should
be invited to constitute the long-promised official delegation which was to come to
England to discuss the terms with His Majesty’s Government. I added, in accordance
with the Cabinet decision :—
“ Both parties will enter the discussion with free hands, since, pending the
exchange of views to which I have referred, His Majesty’s Government have not
thought it right to arrive at a final judgment on either the principle or the details
of the proposals contained in the report.”
Then ensued a telegraphic correspondence with Lord Allenby, which has been
circidated to the Cabinet in the printed collection of telegrams, and the salient features
of which have been the following :—
From the start, Lord Allenby expressed himself as confident (12th January) that
before the Sultan agreed to form an official delegation he would require certain
explanations as to the general attitude of His Majesty’s Government, and that any
very wide modilication of the principles of Lord Milner’s proposals would be regarded
by all shades of opinion as a breach of faith on the part of His Majesty’s Government.
“ Egypt,” he said, “ expects a declaration of policy by His Majesty’s Government
based on Lord Milner’s conversations, and then to be called upon to produce a
delegation to discuss details of settlement.”
While urging this course of action, which he has since emphasised and repeated,
Lord Allenby did not conceal his own opinion that in certain respects His Majesty’s
Government would be well advised, when the Egyptian delegation comes to England,
in insisting upon certain substantial modifications of Lord Milner’s concrete proposals.
They are the very respects in which I have in previous papers myself criticised
them, viz. : —
(a.) 'I he control of foreign affairs, as to which Lord Allenby thinks we should
not acquiesce in the appointment by the Egyptian Government of
diplomatic representatives in foreign capitals.
(b.) The right to maintain British troops in other places than the Canal zone,
notably in the neighbourhood of Cairo.
(c.) The position and functions of the financial and judicial advisers.
(d.) The non-employment of foreigners in the Egyptian civil and military services
except with the assent of the British representative.
In subsequent telegrams Lord Allenby has added criticisms or has suggested
amendments on other points which would be appropriately discussed with the Egyptian
delegation when it arrives.
The Sultan, when he had read Lord Milner’s report, took exactly the line which
Lord Allenby had foreseen. He said that, while entirely willing to meet our views,
he could not form the delegation without a much more definite basis than the purely
negative attitude so far assumed by His Majesty’s Government. A little later
( 2 ( .)th January) the Sultan formulated on his own account a fresh objection to the
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