Last Saturday Lord Cromer delivered his farewell speech in the
Opera House at Cairo. It was a memorable occasion, and the speech was more than worthy of it. The most important declaration was that the British Government intend indefinitely to continue the occupation of Egypt, which has brought such untold benefits to the country. Lord Cromer acknowledged his indebtedness to many of his Egyptian and British colleagues, picking out in carefully chosen words the talents of each. The Egyptian people, he was told, often failed to show much gratitude for the services which had been rendered to them, but he refused to believe that the best of them did not recognise that it was Western civilisation which had raised them from the slough of despond. He bad always bad two objects in view from the moment he took office in Egypt. One was to come to a friendly agreement with France, now happily achieved ; the other was to instil a liberal spirit into an administration "which is of necessity bureaucratic." Lord Cromer next spoke with great courtesy of the oppor- tunities which lay before the Khedive to advance the moral state of the people and encourage reform, and he trusted that the Khedive would not fail to use them. The speech ended with a deeply earnest appeal to the "voiceless millions of blue.shirted fellaheen " not to be led away by illusory schemes of self-government, which would be more injurious to them than to any other class. Lord Cromer'a speech was received with demonstrations of enthusiastic and affectionate regard.
