HC Deb 11 April 1907 vol 172 cc390-2
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir EDWARD GREY,) Northumberland, Berwick

I have to ask the leave of the House to read an announcement which I make with the deepest regret. Lord Cromer has, under medical advice, decided that it is necessary for him to resign for reasons of health; and I think it is best that I should read to the House the announcement in his own words— I have arrived at the conclusion that I must ask you to accept my resignation. I have done so after very full consideration and consultation with my medical adviser and Sir Stephen Mackenzie, who is here. I am most anxious that it should be particularly understood that the reasons which have induced me to take this step are wholly due to the state of my health, and that no political considerations of any kind whatever are in any way connected with it. More especially I desire to say that nothing could be more effective or generous than the manner in which the present Government has supported me. It has been the greatest pleasure to me to serve under you, and it is with extreme regret that I shall break my official connection with you. After spending, however, forty-nine years in the public service, I am thoroughly worn out, and I am really unable to support any longer the excessive strain which my work entails. I feel also that I do not possess the health and strength which are necessary to do justice to all the very important interests involved. Both doctors are quite agreed that it is necessary that I should give up my work. The news has caused the greatest regret to us, and will do so to the House. To me personally it means more than I can express. We have relied upon and placed our confidence in Lord Cromer, as successive British Governments have done for so many years. Some further correspondence has passed in the hope that Lord Cromer's decision might not be final; but, in view of the fact that the recovery of his health (of which, I am glad to think, there is the prospect) depends absolutely upon his retirement, we have been obliged to accept his decision. There will be other opportunities for dwelling more at length upon his work in Egypt; but I should like to say at once that it is the object of His Majesty's Government to maintain that work and to continue the policy which has been inspired by him, and of which a most admirable exposition is contained in his last Report just presented to Parliament. I do not underrate the difficulty of continuing without him the work which has been so dependent upon him. His retirement from Egypt is the greatest personal loss which the public service of this country could suffer. In the early years of the British occupation, in view of all the difficulties in Egypt and elsewhere, the success achieved by him would have seemed incredible, but for the fact that he accomplished it. And if in later years progress has been facilitated by the prestige and confidence which have attached to the occupation, it is by Lord Cromer himself that the prestige and confidence have been created. The King has approved the appointment of Sir Eldon Gorst to the vacancy at Cairo—an appointment which has been made after consultation with Lord Cromer. Sir Eldon Gorst has special knowledge of Egypt; there is no one who has possessed to a greater degree Lord Cromer's confidence or has been more closely associated with him personally in his work, and I am confident that this choice is the one best calculated to maintain and continue it.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR (City of London)

With your permission, Sir, and with the permission of the House, perhaps it would not be inappropriate that I should say one word in respect to the statement just made by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The regret which he has expressed will be felt in an unqualified degree, I believe, by every man of every Party in the House and in the country. It is only history which can give an adequate estimate of the work Lord Cromer has done in Egypt; but we know enough and can survey with sufficient accuracy the magni tude of his work to feel how marvellous are the moral and material labours which he has gone through and to admire the manner in which, under international and other difficulties which might well have wearied out the patience of any less resolute administrator, he has carried through the great task committed to him. This is, perhaps, not the occasion, nor is it my province, to comment on the appointment of the successor His Majesty has named, in conformity with the advice of his responsible Ministers; but all who know Sir Eldon Gorst know how great are the abilities he possesses and how unequalled is his knowledge of recent Egyptian development, and, above all, how anxious he will be to carry out intact the policy which has been so marvellously accomplished by his great predecessor, whose loss to the public service we all lament. We wish him every success.