The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-06-14 00:00:00

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SA.TURDAN. JUNE 14th, 1884.
THE EGYPTIAN QUESTION

TIME lides on, and whatever hold the Egypt-
ian Question may have upon the minds cf
the people, a matter which it must be diffi-
cult to estimate, there is no doubt of the
attention which it receives in Parliament
The House of Lords actually shortened its
Whitsuntide holiday by a week in order
that it might ascertain from Ministers how
the negotiations were proceeding with
France, although the Prime Minister and
the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
who have seats in the House of Commons,
are nightly interrogated and their answers
are printed in the usual channels of infor-
mation, which are as readily accessible to
the peer as to the peasant. The session
opened with an amendment to the Address
on the subject of Egypt; month after month
has passed on, and this is yet the topic of
the day. For weeks the fate of General
Gordon and his romantic detention at Kar-
toum supplied a subject far more absorbing
than the many items of home legislation then
under consideration by the House of Com-
mons; now the negotiations with France
more especially and with the other European
Pow ers generally, occupy the chief place
in legislative attention. Nor does there
seem at present to be much prospect that
the affairs of Egypt will command less notice
in the immediate future than in the imme-
diate past.
The beginning of strife is like the letting
out of water. It is just two years since
those events took place in Alexandria which
led to our intervention in Egypt, and to all
the complications which have since resulted
fm that intervention. On Sunday, the
11th June, 1882, took place the riots in that
city, which created such a scandal in this
country, and originated a demand for armed
interference, which the Government fourd
it difficult, if not impossible, to resist. Arabi
Pasha was in open revolt against the Khe-
dive, whose authority we felt bound to sup-
port. Arabi, it will be remembered, went
to work in a very energetic way. He not only
seized the city of Alexandria, and held it
against the regular Egyptian forces, but
threw up earthworks, from which the
Britisll fleet a month later had to dislodge
him. Then followed the expedition of land
forces, under the command of Lord Wolseley,
aid the brilliant victory at Tel-el-Kebir,
with the capture of Arabi and his deporta-
tion to Ceylon. Thus far all was smooth
sailing. The British arms had been success-
ful on sea and land. The Wolseley and Al-
cester peerages were created, and a consider-
able Parliamentary grant was made to each
of the fortunate recipients of the new titles.
The formal thanks of both Houses of the

Legislature were voted to the army and
navy; and the troops, on their return home,
were greeted with a hearty welcome. Mr.
Joseph Cowen, the senior member for New-
castle-on-Tyne, has since declared in the
House of Commons that strongly opposed as
he was to the campaign in Egypt, the war
was a People's war, and it would, therefore,
have been shabby to refuse those rewards
usual under such circumstances for the
Government to propose and the representa-
tives of the nation to sanction. In fact, the
Ministry could have taken no course other
than that which was then pursued.
Mr. Cowen is a candid critic of the pre-
sent Admiristration, votes -with its oppo-
L—_,L6 quite as often as with its supporters,
and therefore his opinion •was of peculiar
value. The testimony as to what has hap-
pened since is not so favourable. The Arabi
rising was suppressed without increasing the
strength of those who a ould have been the
ruling powers at Cairo. A more formidable
foe than Arabi speedily arose in the Mandi,
or False Prophet of the Soudan, who over-
ran that !desolate region at the head of vast
hordes of fanatical savages, who could fight
far better than the Egyptians, and inflicted
one disaster after another upon the Khe-
dive's army. Theimost terrible of these
was the catastrophe which overtook the
forces of Hicks Pasha early in November.
Since that time the records of bloodshed in
that country have been but too numerous.
The Government, caught by the receding
tide, has not clearly seen its way as to a
definite policy to be pursued. A section of
its own supporters advocate the withdrawal
of 13ritish troops from Egypt altogether:
while, on the other hand a section of the
Opposition do not hesitate to advise the an-
nexation of Egypt, or, at all events, the es-
tablishment of an armed protectorate equi-
valent to annexation. The opponents of the
first-mentioned course point out that it
would lead to anarchy, and convert the
cradle of civilisation into a scene of lasting
civil war. The critics of the second declare
that it would arouse the determined hostility
of at least France amongst continental
nations, and possibly lead to a European war.
It is not likely that any British Government
could now take the hard and fast line sug-
gested by either. We have assumed certain
responsibilities in Egypt which cannot now
be lightly thrown over by leaving the coun-
try, and rendering it a prey to civil strife.
On the other hand, knowing a little of what
are so often described as the "susceptibili-
ties') of the French people, the probabilities
are that neither Mr. Gladstone nor Earl
Granville will do anything to arouse them
or to ran the risk of war between two nations
which have so long been at peace.