Report of the Special Mission to Egypt under Lord Milner, and related papers [‎230v] (463/473)

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Zaghlul has stated that if he does not get what he wants he intends to resort to Irish
methods. Our calculations as regards troops should err on the side of safety, and
military authorities have assured me they have reached the minimum if any serious
political crisis lies ahead.
Secondly, His Majesty’s Government should be able to count with some
certainty on the support of British public opinion for administrative measures which
will be necessary if they adhere to their conditions whether the settlement is worked
with or without the assistance of Adly Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. . These measures, according to British
ideas, may be of an aggressive nature, since here it is fatal if you wish a policy to be
successful to give too much latitude to your opponents. The people simply regard
such an attitude as a sign of weakness, and the Government loses its authority.
Even the coercion of Zaghlul is not excluded from the vista We could not afford
to leave him loose to denounce us if we ever were to hope for peace and quiet.
Could His Majesty’s Government withstand the pressure of British public
opinion in the event of such developments?
I have been too long away from home to form any useful estimate of the trend
of opinion here, but, from all I see and read, the British people are not disposed to
facilitate the task of His Majesty’s Government in carrying through an undertaking
of the nature I have in view. The recent visit of the M P.’s has been a signal lesson ;
they have gone far to undermining the good effect of six months of hard toil. If we
cannot contain such influences—and I imagine from this recent incident there are
insuperable difficulties in the way—we should take the opportunity proffered by the
negotiations with Adly Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. to “get out’’ on the best terms we can.
Adly Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. would probably be prepared, in return for concessions on the, from
his point of view, major points, to give us fairly satisfactory conditions as regards
non-employment of foreigners, retention of Englishmen and other points through
which we should be enabled to retain a beneficial influence on the Government. The
Egyptian does not want to lose his British assistant. We won India through the
initiative of a private company; I have hopes we could still have a considerable
voice in the direction of Egyptian affairs through those Englishmen who would
remain behind.
The impossibility of evacuation has been frequently urged on the ground that
foreign Powers, France, Italy and Greece, would seize the opportunity to send
troops to replace the British forces in process of withdrawal, and that Egypt would
in consequence be lost to us as a British preserve. Surely that brings us back to
British naval preponderance in the Mediterranean, and what is there to prevent
simultaneously with the withdrawal of British troops to the canal zone a declaration
of the Monroe doctrine, or, to bring it up to date, the Curzon doctrine, as regards
Egypt? Is not Mexico a precedent? Thousands of foreign lives and much valuable
foreign property have been destroyed in that unfortunate country, yet no one has
challenged the United States on the policy propounded a hundred years ago.
Besides, I am not unduly apprehensive as regards the persecution of foreigners on
an extended scale. A Greek, Frenchman or Italian mav lose his life here and there,
but that is the usual course of things, and no foreign Power, unless for an ulterior
motive, and with the forces to challenge our world position, could advance such as
an excuse for attempting to occupy the country. France, Greece and Italv are,
besides, too busy elsewhere to concern themselves with their fat profiteers in Egypt,
who are no more good to their country of origin than to that of their adoption.
To sum up, before we finally insist on our major reservations, we should assure
ourselves we have the means to enforce the policy they represent.
Are the arguments clear? I hope so. I would have endeavoured to have
arranged them better had I had time, but I have written under pressure of bag
departure.
Yours ever,
W. S.