EGYPT.
[TO 'rue EDITOR Or TIM "RrIOrATOR...1
SIE,—May I, as a "man on the spot," be allowed to add one or two remarks after reading your very interesting article on " A. Parliament for Egypt" (Spectator, March 9th), with which I find myself in complete accord P The fallacious idea of the Britisher that what is best in his own country must be right everywhere runs through his administration of Egypt. For instance, nothing could be less necessary, or moos disastrous, than to allow a free Press in an Eastern country ; the native Press is the sole cause of all the ill-feeling which is now being aroused in Egypt, and it is creating discontent in every town and village in the country. Again, the English dislike of "outward show; prevails, from Lord Cromer downwards, although one would have thought its utility almost an axiom in the East. Its absence makes the uneducated native consider that the high English official is of very little account, and prevents him identifying in any way the good government of the country with the presence of the English. Tlils ostrich-like attitude is doubtless partly due to the delightful theory so long main- tained that the Egyptian would be able to govern himself in a very few years, and therefore must retain all the externals of power without its realities. Avery short residence in Egypt convinces one that the fulfilment of this theory must wait for the Greek Kalends. To it, moreover, is also due the fact that we are not doing ourselves justice in the administration of the country, by not permitting a suffi- cient number of Englishmen to enter the service properly to supervise each department. (This remark does not apply to the departments of Irrigation or Public Instruc- tion.) I feel I am on very dangerous ground when I deplore the untimely abolition of corporal punishment. Prisons on European lines, but without Europeans to see that really hard work is enforced, are quite useless as a deterrent from crime; and I confess that I think the applica- tion of corporal punishment by order of a properly constituted Court of Law bears very little resemblance to its application in the bad old clays by every Pasha who came along.—I am,
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