Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-07-20
THE EGYPTIAN COMPLICATION.


Constantinople was asked to give some account
of the Egyptian imbroglio. impossible"
he replied. II asked Lord Dufferin for an
explanation of it and he said he had none;l
asked General Lew Wallace to tell me all
about it, but he also shook his head. / talked
with some twenty prominent persons, Turks
and foreigners, and they were as much in the
dark as anybody; it seems to be case OF
''spontaneous inflammation, lis one VI the
explanations that does not explain. Ihe
Egyptian question is older than history, and
though it has been settled hundred times
since the beautiful Cleopatra ruled and wOoed
and lost lover and life, and the kingdom fell
into Roman hands at Actium, B. G. 81, it has
always refused to stay settled, and is not
likely to be permanently composed by the pres
ent Conference or any other. Since 1T became
a province of Turkey, 1917, it has belonged
directly to the European system, and has ell
tered as an element into all Eastern problems.
Had England done her duty to the brave
Mohammed Ali, in 1940, after he had made a
part of Arabia tributary and had wrested
Syria from the Porte and had won the victory
of Nisil, which should have put him upon the
Turkish throne, the Egyptian question would
have been put to rest for hundred years;
but England took st. Jean dare and joined
with the other powers, excepting France, in
No wonder that he tore out handfuls of his
white beard when the English fleet off Alex
andria pointed it's guns on the town, ready
to fire in case he refused to sign treaty COM
pelling him to rencunce his cOnquests, that
''the Sick Man" might continue to rob Egypt
and keep the rest of Europe by the ears by
playing upon their jealouses.
Lower Egypt is merely the Nile and it's
narrow valley. The annual inundation OF the
land makes the soil wonderfully productive,
and adds about six inches to its depth every
hundred years. Cotton culture was intro
duced by Jumel, a Frenchman, in 1851, and the
present yield is about 100000 bales. One
eighth of the cotton used in Europe is raised in
Egypt. The sugar crop is next III Importance,
and most of it is taken to France, while four
fifths of the cotton goes to England. 1t pro-
duces all the grains, the date palm, tobacco,
the cactus, and cattle raising is one OF its
growing industries The population OF Egypt
proper is about 100000, and four-fifths of
the people are fellaheen, who are peasants OF
the lowest class, scarcely remove above
slavery-ign0rant, supersiti0us, fanatlcal, de-
graded Under the system of forced labor,
which is one Of the ancient institutions or
Egypt, when the Khedive wants railroad
built, or a canal dug, or work done Oh his
lands, he sends out an order for the requisite
number of men to do it; and they work slave.
like, from morning till night without pay and
without food. They are obliged to he by their
wives and children and parents or starve.
1t is by this conscripted labor that all the
improvements of modern Egypt were made.
Every European idea that has seized upon a
Khedive has taken so much unreqnited toll
out of the muscles and bones of these un-
clothed and only half-fed fellaheen. Some Of
them have land but One-fifth of all the land
of Egypt proper belonged to Ismail Pacha,
and tile tax upon the rest of the land amount
ed to about S12 an acre, with an additional
tax on every fruit-bearing tree. The govern
ment, not content with taking a portion,
stops all. When the tax gatherer enters a
village he is received with terror. Ii an un-
fortunate holder of anything happens to be
unable to pay the tax, he is beaten until ne
dies, unless his neighbors club together and
make up the deficiency. And the biggest
part Of the tax goes to pay the interest Oh the
national debt of over $500, 100000 contracted
very largely for European improvements and
luxuries for the rulers. The annual tribute to
Turkey amounts to S3,500,000 but the Sultan
is not only the recognized sovereign-he is the
visible head of the Mohommedan Church, and
there is no complaint of the tribute sent to
COnstantinople. 1t is the other tax, which
the miserable and overburdened people attri-
buted to European influence, that makes them
indignant.
Mohammed Ali meant to make Egypt a
powerful, independent nation, and he had the
vigor and force of character to do it had he
been allowed to have his way. His successors,
Said and Ismail, have aimed to EuropeaniZe
Egypt. The latter, who was educated in
Europe. man of vast ability, but deficient in
practical Judgment, went further in this d.
recton than all his predecessors together. He
built railroads, bridges, roads, palaces, public
works of all kinds He made immense i'm
in and around Cairo, Alexandria
and other places His light houses on the
Mediterranean and Red Seas are as Serylcea-
BILE as they are astonishing. His Abyssinlan
and Centeral African expeditions cost over
SIC, ,0O0,OO His fleet Of merchant steamers,
his sugar mills. which did not pay; his fac
tories, which cost more than they yielded;
his schools, which were entirely out OF place;
his army of 10000 with European equipment;
his palaces. built by European architects-all
added to the burdens of the people. He made
Cairo and Alexandria semi-European cities,
and, to induce foreigners to build there, he
gave Europeans land to build upon in propor-
tion to the cost of the houses they proposed to
erect, and one of the finest residences was
owned by Mr.. Remington of this city, who
succeeded in obtaining contract from the
Khedive's government
About 100000 foreigners were enticed to
settle in Egypt by the tempting privileges Of
fered by Ismail and continued by TeWfik. The
former was forced to fly, very largely in conse-
quence of the private debts he had contracted.
But when it is remembered that about 5,UO0,-
600 of Egyptian fellahs are forced to pay taxes
aggregating over S. a head, and that more
than half of the tax is ground out of them to
;,,+n Frppch hOn0S
and for costly and eXtravagant works OF Eu.
ropean improvement, it is easy to understand
why they hate Europeans and cry "Down with
the foreigners - Arab Bey may be consum-
mate demagogue and knave, but he merely
heads discomfort which nothing can hinder
from showing itself in outbreaks. Tewlk lsa
weakling, whose only discovered virtue IS the
fact that he has only one wife. He was put
on the throne by the European creditors OF
Egypt to pay the interest on the bonds. And
behind the worse than slavery in which the
millions of Egyptians are kept stands the
British government.
1t is impossible not to sympathize with these
crushed and degraded Egyptians in their de-
testation of the foreigner, their hatred OF Ell-
ropean improvements and influence, and their
to drive out Europeans or die
in the attempt. Of course, there IS another
side to the difficulty, growing out of the Jea'-
Ousies of the Great Powers and the SuDllme
Porte. Unquestionably, the Sultan has en-
couraged Arab Bey to play on the fanatlcal
passions of the fellaheen and act the usurper,
while he has made atfluent promises to Tewtik
and deplored the unsettled condition of Egypt
to the representatives of England and France:
Egypt pays heavy penalty for being bonnd
up in the great mesh Of European complica-
tions. Were it free from Turkish dominion
and under native ruler, or were it province
10 E,,nlund or Eranna or ItnlN il would soon