Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-06-20
BR|1ONS ARE DAzED
RooseveIt's Audacity Has
Stunned Them.
THAT LECTURE ON EGYPT
Though Daring, It Is Admitted to
Have Touched Bed Rock.
IRELAND TAKES THE TIP
Is Paraphrasing the Speech and Is
Applying It to Conditions in
''the Green Little Isle"
Foreign Correspondence Of The Star.

correspondence OF he star.
LONDON, June 8, 1910.
The more Englshmen think over Mr..
Roosevelt's. blazing indiscretion in lee
turing them about Egypt the more as
founded they are that he should have had
the audacity to do it,. Even tories, who
are using the speech to lash the liberal
government, are forced to admit that the
eX-President's hardihood was amazing.
and they wonder what Americans would
say If some equally prominent Britisher
should so deliver himself in America.
A lecture of this sort from an honored
guest is absolutely without precedent in
civic annals, and the city fathers. heavy
and satisfied with turtle soup and wine,
woke up and rubbed their eyes when from
pleasant compliments to which they had
perfunctorily muttered hear hear,
the African hunter slipped into denun-
citation of the management of Egypt,
subject that has divided camps here and
is a burning political question. Mr.. Roose-
welt touched many Ion the raw while he
pleased the advocates of the big stick
Protest Will Not Avail.
1t is we'll perhaps that parliament is not
in session. One can imagine the wrath
of the Keir Hardies, the j. NJ. Robert
sons and the rest. Already the radicals
and labor people are boiling over with in
dignation in their particular publications.
AS matters stand, steps will doubtless be
taken either before or as soon as parlia-
ment meets TO make vigorous protest
But protest will be vain.
Sir Edward Grey listened to the speech,
and so did Mr.. Balfour. The unionist
chief made no attempt to conceal his
pleasure. Sir Edward Grey always wears
an impenetrable mask. You can never
by watching catch his thoughts. And
yet he also must have left the hall with
some elation. Mr.. Roosevelt had merely
put into forcible phrases language he had
used himself on the floor of the house
of commons, and for which he had been
denounced as anti-democratic. as the
friend Of bureaucracy and the uphoder
of the law of the sword.
There is no getting away from the fact
that the condition Of affairs in Egypt has
been regarded for months with very grave
anxiety. Owing to preoccupation with
domestic politics the men who could
diagnose the symptoms have been unable
to gain the public ear. and so there is
hearty recognition in responsible quarters
of the value of the service which Mr..
Roosevelt has rendered Certain things.
be shouted from the housetops, and Mr..
Roosevelts voice will carry them farther
at this moment than that of any of
Britain's own public men.
A Suggested Analogy.
OF course, when all is said one returns
to the audacity. To get an analogous
case we have to think of Mr.. Asquith or
Mr.. Balfour lecturing the American ma
ton from a Washington platform upon
the conduct of its foreign affairs. But Mr.
Roosevelt is MIR. Roosevelt, and, wounded
OF not, Englishmen cannot help admiring
the mans wide-ranging energy and his
power Of penetrating to the kernel Of diff
ficulties.
Not only has Mr.. Roosevelt stirred up
feeling about Egypt, but Irishmen are
| using the speech to point the moral OF
their own country and reproduce the. ex-
Presidents words. substituting ireland"
whenever Egypt occurs. Several OF the
Irish papers quote as follows: Either
you have the right to be in Ireland or you
have not; either it is or it is not your
duty to establish and keep order. If you
feel that you have not the right to be in
| Ireland: if you do not wish to establish
and keep. order there. why. then, by all
means get out Of Ireland"
The Irish papers declare that this has
been Ireand's claim since the act OF
union was passed England has no right
to be in Ireland, and should get out. 1t is
only of recent years, however, that the
feeling has come into the minds OF the
English people that they have no right
to be in Ireland. That feeling has, how
ever now taken hold fully and so far
as the great forces Of the English democ-
racy are concerned they are satisfied
that they have no right to be there and
| should get out. 1t is not an inopportune
time that the lesson should be repeated
by the ex-President of the United States"
BY this time Mr.. Roosevelt has prob
ably found time TO open the gold casket
which was presented to him In the city
Of London, and has discovered that the
solemn city fathers have played on him
the same joke they played on Gen. Grant
and Garibaidi 1t is not the freedom of
the city that the casket holds; it is only
the pious oninion of the city that he
ought to possess it. And when Mr..
Roosevelt opens his box of compliments
he will find the city merely saying that
if he were only an Englishman he would
be the sort of Englishman LONDON would
like him to be.