In Edinburgh on Wednesday, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, speaking at a
mass meeting of Unionists, told his audience that he looked upon the prospects of any serious difficulty with France as much farther removed at the present moment than they had been for some time past. Dealing with Egypt, he drew a strong, but perfectly true, picture of what would happen if we were to leave Egypt. "They would have a return to all the old iniquitous, extravagant, and bar- barous ways of misgovernment by Pashas from which the Egyptian people had been happily delivered. What would be the result? Probably the ruin of Egypt which came to her before, and the almost certain delivery of the country over either to military despotism or to anarchy." Was it for the benefit of the British taxpayers to allow our highway to India to be reduced to such a state? What had just happened, he went on, would clarify the opinion of the country on the subject of Egypt, and would before long make that opinion clear to the world. That would be a great gain. We entirely agree, and we hope Sir Michael Hicks-Beach will persuade his colleagues (if they need persuasion) to put on record in the Queen's Speech the fact that all doubts as to the permanency of our occupation may now be abandoned. Sir Michael Hicks. Beachended by making the very interesting announcement that our recent naval preparations "cost no more than a few thousand pounds, mainly incurred in the cost of coal." This was because everything was ready before.
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