§ LORD BUCKMASTERMy Lords, I should like to ask the noble Earl the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is now in a position to lay any information before the House on a subject which is causing much anxiety—I refer to the state of Egypt—and whether at the same time he could give us information as to the scope and purpose of the Mission which is known as the Milner Mission.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (EARL CURZON OF KEDLESTON)My Lords, in reply to the noble and learned Lord I will first say a few words about the local situation in Egypt. When I last addressed your Lordships in May—it was, I think, May 15—the short-lived Ministry of Rushdi Pasha had recently come to an end, and Lord Allenby had not as yet found a successor. A few days later, however, Mohammed Said Pasha, who had already been Prime Minister from 1910 to 1914, assumed office and formed an Egyptian Administration. His first task was to restore order and tranquillity to a country still disturbed by the abortive revolution of the spring. To this task he and his colleagues devoted all their energies, and attained such a measure of success that in July Lord Allenby felt justified in transferring to the ordinary civil tribunals of the country the trial of any cases arising out of the disturbances of March and April, other than those of violence against members of His Majesty's Forces; and, to mark his confidence in the Ministry and the good sense of the nation, the preventive censorship of the Press was abolished.
By this time normal conditions had been established throughout the country, and the fellahin, who constitute over 90 per cent. of the population, were enjoying an almost unprecedented degree of prosperity, which went far to efface from their minds the stormy time through which they had passed during the war. In the towns, 340 however, the high cost of living—which I am afraid has not yet diminished—kept alive the spirit of discontent, and the Nationalist leaders took full advantage of this circumstance to pursue their campaign against the Prime Minister and the Protecting Power, to which he was accused of undue subservience.
In the early part of June a few small and half-hearted demonstrations took place in Cairo without, however, giving rise to any serious disorder or breach of the peace. In August signs of industrial unrest became prevalent amongst different classes of workers in the towns. This unrest was fundamentally due to economic causes but was exploited for political purposes by the agitators, who were not slow to realise the value of the strike as a weapon in their armoury. Trade unions or Syndicates were formed, and the foreign Socialist elements took no inconsiderable part in fomenting the discontent which, as I have said, was rife amongst the workers in the larger cities.
On September 2 an attempt was made to assassinate the Prime Minister by means of a bomb. The assailant, a young student of El Azhar University, was arrested, and there is no doubt that the motive of the crime was political.
The Government attempted to meet the legitimate grievances of the workers by setting up a Conciliation Board, which was not unsuccessful in obtaining substantial amelioration in the conditions of labour, and the Government itself set an example in this respect by according a generous increase in the rates of pay to all grades of its employees.
A considerable impetus was given to the cause of the Extremists by the publication early in September of a telegram from Paris to the effect that the United States Senate had decided that Egypt was considered to be neither under Turkey nor under Great Britain, but politically independent. Although this rumour was officially contradicted by the American Agency in Cairo, the effect produced by it was considerable, and the Nationalist Party in Egypt have never ceased to believe that their campaign had the sympathy and would receive the support of one or other among the Great Powers. Of these, as your Lordships are aware, France and America have formally recognised the British Protectorate. Italy has promised 341 to acknowledge it. Its recognition is contained in the Peace Treaty with Germany, and is accordingly confirmed by all the signatories of that Treaty. Any such expectations, therefore, are doomed to complete disappointment.
Such was the sequence of events in Egypt until mid-autumn. The sharp recrudescence of disorder in October, to which I shall again revert presently, was so distinctly and directly connected with the anticipated despatch of the Mission under my noble friend Lord Milner that I must now ask your Lordships to go back with me to the date at which that Mission was first announced, and to the object which it had in view. Already in May last I announced the intention of His Majesty's Government to send such a Mission, and I thus defined its object. It was—
to inquire into the causes of the late disorders in Egypt, and to report on the existing situation in the country, and the form of Constitution which, under the Protectorate, will be best calculated to promote its peace and prosperity, the progressive development of self-governing institutions, and the protection of foreign interests.I call special attention to the words "progressive development of self-governing institutions," because they have been almost completely, and as it would appear deliberately, ignored in the subsequent agitation, although they were the keynote of the policy which the Mission was to hold in view. My Lords, at that time it was intended to despatch the Mission at as early a date as its composition could be completed. But difficulties were experienced in more ways than one. It was not found easy to find available members with' the requisite authority and experience; the summer is not exactly the best time in which to conduct investigations in the interior of a country with the Egyptian climate; it was felt desirable to give the newly-formed Egyptian Administration an opportunity of firmly establishing itself; and it was thought at that time —an illusory hope—that the Peace Conference at Paris might address itself before the autumn to the solution of the Eastern problem. Lord Allenby, upon whose judgment His Majesty's Government placed great reliance, informed us that the Sultan of Egypt and the Prime Minister both favoured a postponement till the autumn, and that he agreed with their views. It 342 was in these circumstances that the date of departure of the Mission was deferred.Meanwhile, His Majesty's Government succeeded in composing the Mission of persons possessing, in at least three cases, actual administrative experience in Egypt, and all of them qualified by their representative character, high position, and public reputation to produce a strong feeling of public confidence in the impartial and sympathetic character of the inquiry which they were commissioned to hold. I have little doubt that, under the guidance of my noble friend Lord Milner, whose name has been so long and honourably associated with Egypt, they will be able to render a great service to that country.
I will now proceed to deal with the object that Lord Milner and his colleagues will have in view. Your Lordships will have noticed from the reports in the Press that the attacks that are made upon the Mission revolve to a large extent round the words "British Protectorate," and that these have become a sort of battle-cry in the agitation that has been fomented in Egypt. I think it desirable that we should clear our minds on the matter, not of cant, because I suspect that the apprehensions that have been aroused have been to a large extent sincere, but of gross and palpable misunderstanding. It was in 1914, after we had been compelled to declare war upon Turkey, that the British Protectorate over Egypt was declared. So far from this being intended, or indeed regarded at the time, as a high-handed act aimed at the suppression of Egyptian liberties, it was decided upon by Mr. Asquith's Government as a much milder and more generous policy than that of annexation, which at that time was strongly advocated by some. Cyprus, which had long been administered by the Colonial Office as part of the British Empire, was annexed. But the opportunity of incorporating Egypt in the Empire was deliberately, and I think wisely, rejected, because it was intended, in the wide latitude of opportunity which the formula of a Protectorate affords, to give free scope to the political aspirations and the self-governing capacities of the Egyptian people.
My Lords, I observe that a great deal of play is now made with the argument that when the British Protectorate over Egypt was declared in 1914 no attempt was made to define its character or implications. I do not remember that that argument was 343 much used, or indeed used at all, at the time. Perhaps, in the light of later events, it would have been wiser if Mr. Asquith's Government, who at that time had the advice of Lord Kitchener at their elbow, had indulged in some fuller explanation. But I think that your Lordships can readily understand how it was that this was not done. Not Egypt alone, but almost the whole of the Western world, soon to be followed by the Eastern, was involved in the first throes of the terrific struggle which was to last for another four years. Before long Egypt herself was threatened; her own frontiers were in danger; immense armies were collected upon her soil, either for the defence of the Canal or on their way to the various theatres of war; Egypt became a throbbing hive of war industry and war commotion; inter aorta silent leges: and the time was hardly opportune for discussing politics or formulating a constitutional definition. I doubt very much if at that time, in consultation with Sultan Hussein and the then Ministers, a serious attempt had been made to determine what form the constitution of Egypt should assume after the war, it would have been found practicable to pursue it to any solution.
But now, my Lords, the situation has changed, and the questions which it might have been difficult to answer then may with propriety be put and answered now. What, then, is the nature of our position in Egypt, and what is the task with which the Mission is charged in working out the future form of its Government? I need hardly elaborate to your Lordships the reasons for which Great Britain is compelled to interest herself in the political fortunes of Egypt, and is unable to give any encouragement to the claim of complete national independence. Quite apart from the fact that Egypt, if left to stand alone, could neither protect her frontiers against external aggression nor guarantee a strong and impartial Government at home, her geographical position at the gate of Palestine, for which it seems likely that a special responsibility will before long be placed upon our shoulders, at the doorway of Africa, and on the high road to India renders it impossible that the British Empire, with any regard to its own security and connections, should wash its hands of responsibility for Egypt. Egypt is, of course, primarily an Egyptian interest; the good Government and the prosperity and happiness of its people are the first 344 concern; but it is also a British interest of capital importance; and I suspect that there are few who would deny that it is also a world interest, and that the world interest is best secured by leaving Egypt under the ægis of a great civilised Power.
But, my Lords, accepting these fundamental propositions, which underlie the whole matter and which no British Government or Party will be disposed to dispute, there may yet be wide differences of opinion as to the form which the British interest should assume.
I shrink on the present occasion from attempting any scientific definition of the term "Protectorate," which, as a constitutional expedient known to all countries and to all periods of the world's history, has many shades of meaning, from an advanced degree of political or administrative control at the one end to little more than a sphere of political influence at the other. Common, however, to all these examples is the conception that the Protecting Power is under an obligation to defend the protected State from external attack, to secure the proper treatment of foreign subjects and property within it, and generally speaking to control its foreign and political relations. The degree to which a Protectorate carries with it the prerogative of interference in the internal administration of a State is laid down by no law and must be decided in each case on its merits.
In Egypt, however, these constitutional commonplaces appear to be in danger of being forgotten; and the British Protectorate is mistaken for a thinly-veiled form of annexation. The constitutional history of Egypt since the first grant of representative institutions after Lord Dufferin's Mission nearly forty years ago, culminating in the Organic Law of 1913 —unhappily never carried into effective operation owing to the outbreak of war in the succeeding year—should have supplied a sufficient answer to these misunderstandings. If annexation, either open or disguised, had been intended, the time to carry it out would have been in the winter of 1914. But it was not intended then, and it is not intended now. The idea that Egyptian aspirations and Egyptian nationality are to be crushed or ignored is an extravagant misconception which I cannot too emphatically repudiate. The object with which the Mission is going out has been defined in the declaration which Lord 345 Allenby, acting upon instructions from His Majesty's Government, has already issued in Cairo. It has been published in the newspapers in this and every country, and I have no doubt that your Lordships have seen it. But I may be permitted, perhaps, on the present occasion to add a few further words on the subject.
I have already spoken of our responsibilities and duties towards Egypt—responsibilities which Great Britain cannot forego or disown. Egypt depends upon them for her safety from foreign attack and her existence as a nation. But within those boundaries is a wide and ample field in which Egyptians are invited to participate, and must, as time passes on, participate in an ever-increasing degree, in the Government of their country. We recognise the legitimacy of these aspirations. We desire to provide for their satisfaction. The progressive development of self-governing institutions in Egypt is an ideal which they may share with us and we with them. It is not to be thought of that a race like the Egyptians, possessing in its upper ranks a high culture and historic memories, should be content with a rôle of passive subordination in the administration of their country.
My Lords, it will be the object of Lord Milner and his colleagues, in consultation with the Sultan and his Ministers and representative Egyptians of all classes, to devise the details of a Constitution by which all these parties shall be able, in their several spheres and in an increasing degree, to co-operate in the management of Egyptian affairs. British assistance and British guidance will still be required. Nor will any of those who have followed the history of Egypt for the last forty years and seen the astounding advance that she has made under our auspices, question the necessity of this supervision. Lord Milner's Mission is not going out to Egypt with a Constitution in its pocket. It intends to consult all parties before it even forms an opinion. It is not authorised to impose a Constitution upon Egypt. What it has to do is to undertake the preliminary work that is necessary before the future form of Government is determined. While it is engaged in this task the Mission, with the assistance of the material which Lord Allenby has already collected, should be able to form an opinion on the causes, some of them obscure but others very patent and removable, of the recent risings and 346 present discontent, and will be able, as I hope, to propound a remedy. They will doubtless hear of many anomalies and grievances, and if they are confronted with proven abuses in the administration they will, I am confident, recommend their extirpation with unflinching hand.
If these intentions are known, Lord Milner's Mission should be assured, not of an unfriendly greeting, but of a cordial welcome at the hands of all friends of Egyptian nationality and Egyptian progress. Such a reception, I am sure, they will meet with at the hands of the new Egyptian Ministry under Yussuf Wabha Pasha, which assumed office on the resignation of Mohammed Said Pasha a few days ago. The High Commissioner has reported to us very favourably on the character and composition of the Ministry which now enters upon office, sharing, as it does, the hopeful views of His Majesty's Government and resolved to co-operate loyally in their execution.
I see that the question has been raised in some quarters why the Mission, even if there were good reasons for its postponement in the middle of the summer, did not go out in the early autumn, and an impression of irresolution or vacillation is said to have been produced by the delay. We were quite willing and had made all preparations to despatch the Mission in September. But two reasons interfered with the execution of our plan. The late Egyptian Prime Minister more than once pleaded in the strongest possible manner for the further postponement of its arrival, and we were anxious as far as possible to carry him with us. Secondly, Lord Allenby was called to Europe for other purposes. We desired to profit by his advice, and we did not wish to act in his absence from Egypt. As soon as he had returned to Cairo and taken stock of the situation he advised that the Mission should start with as little delay as possible, and preparations are now being made for its early departure.
One other plea has been put forward and has found a good deal of favour in Egypt—namely, that the Mission should not appear upon the scene until the Peace with Turkey has been signed. There may have been some value in this plea in the course of last summer, when every one hoped that the Paris Conference, having completed its other labours, would turn its attention to the Peace with Turkey without delay. But these hopes were disappointed; 347 and although His Majesty's Government are anxious to take up at the earliest possible date the concluding stages of the work of the Conference and have made formal proposals to the other Allied Powers to that effect, the point has not yet been reached at which it is possible to commence the investigation of that subject or to prepare the way for the future settlement of the East. But I should like to point out that, whatever form the future peace with Turkey may take, or at whatever date it may be concluded, it can make no difference whatsoever in the solution of the Egyptian problem. The political connection of Turkey with Egypt is at an end, nor is it conceivable that it should ever be revived. It is not to Turkey that Egypt must look for the fulfilment of her aspirations or the future of her race.
§ EARL CURZON OF KEDLESTONWhatever be the terms imposed upon Turkey by the Powers, the recognition of the British Protectorate, already made or promised by all the Great Powers, will be an inseparable feature of the Treaty, nor can any provision in the Treaty alter in any way the fundamental principle of the inquiry with which Lord Milner's Mission is charged—namely, the progressive development of Egyptian self-governing institutions under British protection.
My Lords, it remains only for me to notice in a few sentences the unfortunate recrudescence of disquiet, disorder, and disturbance in Egypt during the past few weeks. In August, as I have already pointed out, when the delay of the Peace Conference in dealing with the Turkish question and the failure of the Zaghlul Mission to secure a hearing in Paris were manifest, the tone of the hearing in Egypt became increasingly bitter, and patriotic Egyptians were continually urged to boycott the Mission on the recommendation of the Zaghlul Party, many of whom had by this time returned to Egypt. The agitation continued to grow in intensity until it culminated in serious riots in Alexandria on October 24 and 25, and recourse had to be made to the assistance of British troops to restore order. These disorders were repeated a week later, and on November 16 were reproduced in Cairo. In both places the Egyptian police and soldiers have done their best to cope with a very difficult situation, but have 348 required the assistance of His Majesty's Forces, who have conducted themselves with exemplary self-restraint and moderation.
I do not propose at this moment to analyse more closely the reasons of this effervescence, which is a product of the events of the time, and is common to many parts of the Eastern world. The precise parts that are played in it by political agitation, by religious fanaticism, by the reaction of the war, by economic causes, or by the undisciplined forces of anarchy it is difficult to disentangle. They impose upon the Egyptian and British authorities in combination the primary duty of enforcing law and order and punishing outrage and crime. We trust to the firm and judicious handling of the High Commissioner to deal with this aspect of the case, and the new Egyptian Ministry will receive from him and from us every support in vindicating the first principles of civilised society.
But these incidents will not deter us from pursuing the path which has been mapped out for us by the highest conception of duty, both to Egypt and to ourselves. We appeal to moderate opinion in Egypt to support us in the task we have undertaken, and to co-operate with Lord Milner and his colleagues in their undertaking. The effort to raise Egypt from the misery and oppression in which she was plunged less than half a century ago, and the successful results of which have been our pride and her glory, cannot be dropped midway. Rather may we hope to guide her energies and resources into new channels of progress and influence.
Before I sit down I should like in a sentence to point to the opposite, and encouraging picture that is presented by the Soudan. Under the able rule of the Governor-General, Sir Lee Stack, the inhabitants of that country have continued to maintain perfect order and have given notable evidence of their affection towards Great Britain by the visit to this country in July of a deputation of notables who were received by His Majesty the King. Both to His Majesty and subsequently to myself they expressed their warm appreciation of the work accomplished by Great Britain for the regeneration of their country and their dissociation from the events which have happened in Egypt. Their one desire is to remain in the Empire and not to be dissevered from it. This gratifying 349 testimony of loyalty is largely, if not entirely, due to the admirable work accomplished by the late Governor-General, Sir Reginald Wingate, who devoted his great abilities for so many years to promoting the prosperity of the Soudan and to laying the foundations of a State in which the methods of British rule have received their fullest vindication.
§ THE EARL OF SELBORNEMy Lords, I think the whole House has listened to the statement of my noble friend with the greatest interest and attention. So important is that statement, so carefully balanced its different parts, so evidently the result of deep thought that I think very likely your Lordships may wish on another occasion, when we have had greater opportunities of studying what my noble friend has said, to recur to this most important subject. But I should not like this occasion to pass without making one or two preliminary observations.
I think your Lordships will all agree that my noble friend's speech was characterised by the greatest self-restraint and moderation and by a great feeling of sympathy for the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people. If I had any criticism to make on the earlier part the necessity for that was removed by my noble friend's conclusion. Because I thought at one moment he was not sufficiently dwelling on the great work that this country has done in Egypt within the last forty years, or sufficiently bringing to the remembrance of the world the antithesis between the present internal condition of Egypt and of its finances, and its condition in 1882.
Surely in the whole history of the Empire there has been no more wonderful work than that done by the British administrators and the great soldiers who have worked in Egypt and in the Soudan; and if now, at the end of that period, there is the appearance of a great deal of discontent and dissatisfaction among certain of the Egyptians, I think we may feel quite assured that the causes do not lie either in the motives which have actuated our statesmen or our administrators, or in the result of their forty years of administration. The causes are to be sought partly in that general turmoil of the world which has followed the four years tornado of war, and which manifests itself in the East in different ways and at different moments from what it does in the West.
350 My noble friend has told us that one of the duties of Lord Milner and his Mission will be to try and find out what were the causes of these disturbances. But there was one possible cause to which my noble friend did not allude, or if he did allude to it I was not fortunate enough to catch the sentence. It has been stated, and it has occurred to many of us, that Turkish intrigue may have played some part in those disturbances from the summer up to the present time. Now, if there is one thing on which all parties in this country are absolutely united it is in this—that in no circumstances shall Turkey have any more say in the Government of Egypt. Again, there is another subject on which all parties are absolutely united—namely, the belief that if there is one thing more proved than another in the history of modern nations it is that the Turk, young or old, is totally unfit to be trusted with the government of any human being. Therefore my noble friend and the Government may rest assured that they have the support of the whole nation behind them in letting Egyptians of all sorts and descents clearly understand from the beginning that Turkey is never again to be allowed to have any say in the Government of Egypt.
The next point to which I wish especially to draw attention is one with which my noble friend dealt fully, and I am sure he cannot deal with it too fully or too often—that is the absolute impossibility of Egypt acquiring what is called a position of complete independence. If we were by any lapse of sanity to leave Egypt to-morrow and to divest ourselves of any responsibility whatever for her future, in my judgment there is nothing more certain than that within a generation another great Power would have taken our place in Egypt. Under the modern conditions of the world, —indeed, I think if you went back into history you would find that in almost every age of the world the same story has been proved—Egypt cannot stand without the assistance of some protecting Power; and when we consider, as my noble friend said, that the Suez Canal is the gate to the East, and that behind Egypt in the hinterland and far interior of Africa there is now gradually developing the great territory of the Soudan—wholly loyal; another great monument of the courage and skill of the British administrator—it must be perfectly plain to any one who does not desire wilfully to deceive himself that this country never could allow any other Power 351 to occupy our place in Egypt. As in no circumstances can we ever give way on these two points to any feeling of Egyptian sentiment, I hope that my noble friend will never weary in trying to disabuse Egyptians of the possibility either of our allowing Turkey any re-entry in Egyptian affairs or of ourselves abandoning the task which was taken up nearly forty years ago.
Let me, in conclusion, say a word in respect of my noble friend Lord Milner. I think we are indeed fortunate that he is available at the present moment to undertake this Mission; because there is no man not only more qualified by his whole life-record of public service, but by the particularly brilliant episode of that record which began in Egypt sonic thirty or thirty years ago. He will go back to it in very different circumstances from those under which he left it; but we all look forward with the utmost confidence to his calm judgment that (if he will allow me to say so in his presence) always goes to the bottom of things and is never carried away by sentiment.