Full text of Statements and Speeches of Robert L. Owen : The Egyptian Question : Extracts from the Congressional Record

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THE EGYPTIAN QUESTION.
Mr. OWEN. Mr. President, some days ago, October 15, I
introduced a resolution bearing on the treaty of peace with
Germany. I ask to have inserted in the R ecord a memorandum
o f a letter from King George to the Sultan of Egypt, which I
will not take the time to read, together with a cablegram to
Mahmoud Pasha from Mahmoud Soliman Pasha, which I shall
not take the time to read, bearing upon the same question, to­
gether with some data submitted by the Egyptian delegation
here, which I ask, without reading, to have also printed in
the R ecord.
T h e r e b e i n g n o o b j e c t i o n , t h e matter r e f e r r e d to was o r d e r e d
to b e p r in te d

in t h e R

ecord,

a s fo llo w s :

“ Resolved, That the United States in ratifying the covenant
o f the league of nations does not intend to be understood as
modifying in any degree the obligations entered into by the
United States and the Entente Allies in the agreement of No­
vember 5, 1918, upon which as a basis the German Empire laid
down its arms. The United States regards that contract to
carry out the principles set forth by the President o f the United
States on January 8, 1917, and in subsequent addresses, as a
world agreement, binding on the great nations which entered
into it. and that the principles there set forth will be carried
out in due time through the mechanism provided in the cove­
nant, and that article 23, paragraph (b ), pledging the members
o f the league to undertake to secure just treatment of the
native inhabitants under their control, involves a pledge to
carry out these principles.
“ The protectorate which Germany recognizes in Great Brit­
ain over Egypt is understood to be merely a means through
which the nominal suzerainty of Turkey over Egypt shall be
transferred to the Egyptian people and shall not be construed
as a recognition by the United States in Great Britain o f any
sovereign rights over the Egyptian people or as depriving the
people o f Egypt of any o f their rights of self-government.

DATA COMPILED BV EGYPTIAN DELEGATION.
Shall

R i g h t or M ig h t

P r evail?

“ Egypt is a country o f immense wealth. It has millions of
acres o f agricultural land greater in value per acre and in pro­
ducing power than any other country in the world. The seizure
o f Egypt by Great Britain adds to Britain’s enormous posses­
sions an area o f 350,000 square miles and a population of
13,000,000 people. The value o f the natural resources so seized
is beyond computation.
“ Egypt is one compact whole— one nation, one language.
The character o f the people, their conduct, their, habits, their
sympathies, and their inclinations are the same throughout that
country. Because o f geographic situation, however, Egypt has
attracted the avarice o f colonizing powers more, perhaps, than
any other country In the world. In 1798 the French under
Napoleon invaded Egypt. In 1801 the French were expelled
2
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3

from Egypt. In 1807 Great Britain attempted to invade Egypt,
but was ejected by tbe Egyptian Army.
“ Egypt continued to be a Turkish Province until 1831, when
war broke out between Egypt and Turkey, and the Egyptian
Army was victorious. Constantinople would have fallen to the
Egyptians, but Great Britain and France interfered in order
to preserve the balance o f power and the Egyptians were com­
pelled to give up the full fruits o f their victories.
“ By the treaty of London o f 1840-41 Egypt became autono­
mous, subject only to an annual tribute to Turkey of about
83,000,000. The Government of Egypt could maintain an army,
contract loans, make commercial treaties, and enter into inter­
national agreements. For all practical purposes Egypt was
independent and free.
“ In 1882 Great Britain occupied Egypt ostensibly to protect
the Khedive against the movement for popular government, and
continued to occupy the country, against the protest of the Egyp­
tians,under the protext o f protecting the people from the Khedive.
“ The British Government from the time of occupation up to
the beginning of the recent war promised to withdraw the
British troops from Egypt. Gladstone, when prime minister,
said, ‘ I f one pledge can be more solemn and sacred than an­
other, special sacredness in this case binds us to withdraw the
British troops from Egypt.’
“ Lord Salisbury, when prime minister in 1889, solemnly
assured Egypt and the world that Egypt would never be placed
under a British ‘ protectorate ’ or annexed by Great Britain.
“ Great Britain had agreed by the treaty o f London of
1840-41 to protect the autonomy of Egypt, and in the AngloFrench agreement of April 8, 1904, Great Britain declared that
it had no intention of altering the political status o f Egypt.
“ Afer the beginning of the war, and on December 18, 1914,
Great Britain deposed the Khedive and appointed a sultan of
her own choosing to the throne of Egypt. On the same date
Great Britain proclaimed the so-called protectorate over Egypt,
announcing, however, at the same time that it was merely for
the period of 1he war and only a step toward the independence
of Egypt.
“ King George, in a letter which was widely circulated
throughout Egypt and which was published in the London
Times of December 23, 3914, said:
“ ‘ * * * I feel convinced that you will be able, with the
cooperation o f your ministers and the protection o f Great
Britain, to overcome all influences which are seeking to destroy
the independence o f Egypt, * * V
“ This change o f status being announced at the time as a
merely temporary war measure, was assumed by the Egyptians
to be such. The Egyptians with absolute unanimity took sides
with the Allies and served to make, as they believed, the world
safe for democracy and for the right o f national self-determina­
tion in all peoples.
“ When the armistice was signed the Egyptians rejoiced in the
thought that the day of their deliverance had come, and that
henceforth they would enjoy that right o f national self-deter­
mination proclaimed by President Wilson. A commission was
appointed by the Egyptian people to attend the peace conference,
Where their independence and sovereignty could be consecrated
and acknowledged by the powers.
147311— 20090







“ In violation of its pledges of independence to the Egyptian
people, and regardless of the fact that the Egyptian people had
served and sacrificed in the allied cause, Great Britain arrested
four o f the leading citizens of Egypt, who had been selected by
the Egyptian people to go to Paris, and these four were torn from
their homes without warning and deported to Malta, where they
were thrown into a military prison.
“ When the Egyptian people learned of this act o f perfidy on
the part of Great Britain their indignation was intense. Na­
tional self-determination demonstrations were held throughout
E gypt Great Britain answered these demonstrations for na­
tional self-determination, the principle for which Great Britain
had ostensibly fought in the war, by firing machine guns into
crowds of these peaceable and unarmed, liberty-seeking people,
killing more than a thousand and wounding vastly more.
“ Egyptians who dared to assert in public that Egypt should
have the right of national self-determination were put in prison. '
The cry for liberty by an Egyptian was answered by British
military punishment.
t1
“ If present conditions are permitted to continue, liberty is
dead to Egypt, and the right of self-determination to all peoples,
for which Americans believed they were fighting, has been made
a hollow mockery.
“ Gen. Allenb.v finally, by force of Egyptian public opinion, ad­
vised the British Government to permit the commission to pro­
ceed to Paris. When the commission reached Paris they asked
for a hearing before the peace conference. This was denied
them. They wrote to President Wilson and asked for a con­
ference with him. Their appeals were in vain.
“ Some days after the commission reached Paris the so-called
protectorate o f Great Britain over Egypt was ‘ recognized.’ The
holding o f Egypt by Great Britain is not a protectorate in the
legal sense o f the word, but under guise of a protectorate Great
Britain is holding Egypt to-day as a subject and conquered
nation.
“ The approval o f this so-called protectorate would be accepted
by the British Government as approval o f the present holding of
Egypt by Great Britain as spoils of war and would rivet the
chains of subject slavery upon the Egyptian people.
“ In a statement issued by the British Embassy at Washington,
September 2, 1910, and which was published in the daily press,
the embassy stated:
“ ‘ Great Britain has carefully avoided destroying the sov­
ereignty o f Egypt.’
“ A few days later the British foreign office in London gave
an interview to the International News Service, claiming to
have succeeded to Turkish nominal suzerainty over Egypt.
Great Britain is claiming both a protectorate and a sovereignty
over Egypt at the same time.
“ Great Britain is holding Egypt to-day not by right but
by might o f military force. Great Britain’s seizure o f Egypt
is out of keeping with the world’s new temper. Only by the
exercise o f the gospel o f military force can the continued
holding o f Egypt by Great Britain be maintained. Only in
violation of its sacred pledges and treaty obligations can Great
Britain assert dominion over the people of Egypt.
“ On November 10, 1914, Lloyd-George in a speech called the
world to witness the utter unselfishness of their part in the
1 4 -7 3 1 1 — -2 0 0 9 0

war. ‘ As tin- Lord liveth,’ lie declared, 'England docs not
want one yard o f territory. We are in this war from motives
of pare chivalry to guard the weak.’ Shall Egypt be handed
over to Great Britain in violation o f ilie great principles for
which Americans, Egyptians, and the Allies fought? How can
it be justly said that Egypt is outside the realm of the prin­
ciples o f the 14 points and that Great Britain may deny the
right o f self-determination to Egypt?
“ The Egyptian people are liberty loving and peaceful. They
have not interfered with other nations and they ask now that
Groat Britain not be allowed to destroy the inalienable right
o f the Egyptian people to liberty, and the right to have their
own government, controlled by their own people.”

BRITISH PLEDGES.
“ In May, 1882, a British fleet appeared before Alexandria.
In June, 1882, a serious disturbance took place in Alexandria,
and a number o f Europeans were killed. On July 11 and 12,
1882, Alexandria was bombarded by ihe British fleet and Brit­
ish soldiers began to occupy Egypt. Great Britain pledged the
Egyptian Government and the world that this occupation would
be only temporary. The solemn pledges to this effect made by
England are evidenced by the following documents:
“ 3. Lord Granville’s dispatch, November 4, 1 8 st (Egypt,
No. 3 (3882), pp. 2, 3 ), said:
“ ‘ The policy o f Her Majesty’s Government toward Egypt
lias no other aim than the prosperity o f the country, and its
full enjoyment o f that liberty which it has obtained under
successive firmans o f the Sultan. * * * It can not be too
clearly understood that England desires no partisan ministry
in Egypt. In the opinion o f Her Majesty's Government a
partisan ministry founded on the support of a foreign power,
or upon the personal influence o f a foreign diplomatic agent,
is neither calculated to be o f service to the country it admin­
isters nor to that in whose interest it is- supposed to be
maintained.’
“ 2. In the protocol signed by Lord Dufferin, together with
the representatives o f the five other great powers, Juno 25,
3882 (Egypt, No. 17 (1882), p. 33), it was provided:
“ ‘ The Government represented by the undersigned engaged
themselves, in any arrangement which may he made in conse­
quence o f tlieir concerted action for the regulation o f the
affairs of Egypt, not to seek any territorial advantage, nor any
concession o f any exclusive privilege, nor any commercial ad­
vantage for their subjects other than those which any other
nation can equally obtain.’ [Italics ours.]
“ 3. Sir Beauchamp Seymour, in a communication to Khedive
Tewfik, Alexandria, July 26, 3882, published in ihe Official
Journal o f July 28, 3,882, said:
“ * I, admiral commanding the British fleet, think it opportune
to confirm without delay once more to Your Highness that the
Government of Great Britain has no intention of making the con­
quest of Egypt, nor o f injuring in any way the religion and lib­
erties of the Egyptians. I t has for its sole object to protect Your
Highness and the Egyptian people against rebels.'
[Italics
ours.]
147811— 20000







6
“ 4. Sir Charles Dilke, in the House o f Commons, July 25,1882,
said:
“ ‘ It is the desire o f Her Majesty’s Government, after reliev­
ing Egypt from military tyranny, to leave the people to manage
their oion affairs. * * * We believe that it is better for the
interests o f their country, as well as for the interests o f Egypt,
that Egypt should be governed by liberal institutions rather
than by a despotic rule. * * * We do not wish to impose on
Egypt institutions of our own choice, but rather to leave the
choice of Egypt, free, * * * . It is the honorable duty of
this country to be true to the principles o f free institutions,
which are our glory.’ [Italics ours.]
“ 5. The Right Hon. Mr. W\ E. Gladstone, in the House of
Commons, August 10, 1882, said:
“ ‘ I can go so far as to answer the honorable gentleman when
he asks me whether we contemplate an indefinite occupation of
Egypt. Undoubtedly of all things in the world, that is a thing
which we arc not going to do. It would be absolutely at vari­
ance with all the principles and views o f Her Majesty’s Govern­
ment, and the pledges they have given to Europe and with the
views, l may say, o f Europe itself.’ [Italics ours.]
“ G. Lord Dufferin’s dispatch, December 10, 1882, Egypt No.
2 (1883), page 30, stated:
“ ‘ In talking to the various persons who have made inquiries
as to my views on the Egyptian question I have stated that wo
have-not the least intention of preserving the authority which
has thus reverted to us. * * * It was our intention so to
conduct our relations with the Egyptian people that they should
naturally regard us as their best friends and counselors, but
that we did not propose upon that account arbitrarily to impose
our views upon them or to hold them in an irritating tutelage.'
IItalics ours.J
“ 7. Lord Granville, December 29, 1882, Egypt No. 2 (1882),
page 33, officially stated:
“ ‘ You should intimate to the Egyptian Government that it is
the desire of Her Majesty's Government to withdraw the troops
from Egypt as soon as circumstances permit, that such with­
drawal will probably be effected from time to time as the se­
curity of the country will allow it, and that Her Majesty’s Gov­
ernment hope that the time will be very short during which
the full number of the present force will be maintained.' [Italics
ours.]
“ 8. Lord Dufferin’s dispatch, February G, 1883, Egypt No. G
(1883), pages 41, 43, stated:
‘“ The territory of the Khedive has been recognized as lying
outside the sphere o f European warfare and international jeal­
ousies. * * *
“ ‘ The Valley o f the Nile could not be administered from
London. An attempt upon our part to engage in such an under­
taking would at once render us objects o f hatred and suspicion
to its inhabitants. Cairo would become a focus o f foreign
Intrigue and conspiracy against us, and we should soon find our­
selves forced either to abandon our pretensions under dis­
creditable conditions or embark upon the experiment o f a com­
plete acquisition o f the country.’
“ 9. Again, at page 83, Lord Dufferin sa id :
‘“ Had I been commissioned to place 017011*8 in Egypt on the
footing of an Indian subject State the outlook would have l>een
147311— 20090

different. The masterful hand o f a resident would have quickly
hcnt everything to his will, and in the space o f five years we
should have greatly added to the material wealth and well­
being o f the country by the extension o f its cultivated urea and
the consequent expansion of its revenue; by the partial if not
the total abolition of the corvee and slavery; the establishment
of justice and other beneficent reforms. But the Egyptians
would have justly considered these advantages as dearly pur­
chased at the expense of their domestic independence. More­
over, Her Majesty's Government have pronounced against such
an alternative/ [Italics ours.]
“ 10. Mr. Gladstone, in the House o f Commons August 0,
1883, said:
The other powers of Europe
* * are well aware of
the general intentions entertained by the British Government,
intentions which may be subject, o f course, to due consideration
o f that state of circumstances, but conceived and held to be
in the nature not only of information but a pledge or engage­
ment: [Italics ours.]
“ 11. ^ r- Gladstone, in the House o f Commons August 9,
The uncertainty there may be in some portion o f the public
mind has reference to those desires which tend toward the
permanent occupation o f Egypt and its incorporation in this
Empire. This is a consummation to which ice arc resolutely
opposed and which we will have nothing to do with bringing
about. W e arc against this doctrine of annexation; we are
against everything that resembles or approaches i t ; awl we arc
against all language that tends to bring about its expectation.
IFe arc against it on the ground of the interests of England;
wc arc against it on the ground o f our duty to E gypt; wc are
against it on the ground o f the specific and solemn pledges given
to the world in the most solemn manner and under the most
critical circumstances, pledges which have earned for us the
confidence of Europe at large during the course o f difficult and
delicate operations, and which, if one pledge can be more solemn
and sacred than another, special sacrcdncss in this case binds
us to observe. We are also sensible that occupation prolonged
beyond a certain point may tend to annexation, and consequently
it is our object to take the greatest care that the occupation
does not gradually take a permanent character.
* * \y0
can not name a day and do not undertake to name a day for
our final withdrawal, but no effort shall be wanting on our part
to bring about that withdrawal as early as possible. [Italics
ours. |
"12. Lord Granville’s dispatch, June 10, 18si, Egypt No. 23
(18X4), page 13, stated:
•“ Her Majesty’s Government * * * are willing that the
withdrawal of the troops shall take place at the beginning o f the
y «»r
provided that the powers are then of opinion that such
withdrawal can take place without risk to peace and order.’
"13. Lord Derby, In the House o f Lords, February 20 1885
said:
’
’
From the first we have steadily kept in view the fact that
our occupation was temporary and provisional only. * * *
We do not propose to keep Egypt permanently.
* * On
that point we arc pledged to this countrv and to Europe• and
147311—20090
*
’







8
if a contrary policy is adopted it will not be by us.’ [Italics
ours.]
“ 14. Lord Salisbury, in the House o f Lords, June 10, 1887,
said:
“ ‘ It was not open to us to assume tlie protectorate o f Egypt,
because Her Majesty’s Government have again and again pledged
themselves that they tvould not do so. * * * My noble
friend has dwelt upon that pledge, and he does us no more than
justice when he expresses his opinion that it is a pledge which
has been constantly present to our minds. * * * It was un­
doubtedly the fact that our presence in Egypt, unrecognized by
any convention * * * gave the subjects of the Sultan cause
for a suspicion Which we did not deserve.’ [Italics ours.]
“ 15. Lord Salisbury, in the House of Lords, August 12, 1889,
said:
“ ‘ When my noble friend * * * asks us to convert our­
selves from guardians into proprietors * * * and to declare
our stay In Egypt permanent * * * I must say I think my
noble friend pays an insufficient regard to the sanctity of the
obligations which the Government of the Queen have undertaken
and by rvliich they are bound to abide. In such a matter we
have not to consider what is the most convenient or what is
the more profitable course; we have to consider the course to
which we are bound by our own obligations and by European
law.' [Italics ours,]
“ 16. Mr. Gladstone, in the House of Commons, May 1, 1893,
sa id :
“ ‘ I can not do otherwise than express my general concur­
rence * * * that the occupation of Egypt is in the nature of
a burden and difficulty, and that the permanent occupation of
that country would not be agreeable to our traditional policy,
and that it would not be consistent with our good faith toward
the Suzerain power, while it would be contrary to the laws of
Europe. * * * I certainly shall not set up the doctrine that
we have discovered a duty which enables us to set aside the
pledges into which we have so freely entered. * * * The
thing we can not do with perfect honor Is either to deny that
we are under engagements which preclude the idea o f an indefi­
nite occupation, or so to construe that indefinite occupation as
to hamper the engagements that we are under by collateral con­
siderations.’ [Italics ours.]
“ 17. The text of the Anglo-French agreement of April 8, 1904,
provides:
“ ‘ The Government of His Majesty declares that it has no in­
tention of altering the political status of Egypt.’
“ 18. Lord Cromer’s report, March 3,1907, Egypt No. 1 (1907),
page 2, stated:
“ * There are insuperable objections to the assumption of a
British protectorate over Egypt. It would involve a change
in the political status of the country. Now, in Article 1 o f the
Anglo-French agreement o f the 8th April, 1904, the British
Government have explicitly declared that they have no inten­
tion o f altering the political status o f Egypt.’
“ 19. In an interview with Dr. Nimr, editor of the Mokattam,
October 24, 1908, acknowledged as official by Sir E. Grey in
the House o f Commons, Sir Eldon Gorst sa id :
“ * It has been said that Great Britain proposes shortly to
proclaim the protectorate or the annexation o f Egypt to the
147311— 20090

British Empire. Will Sir Eldon Gorst i>ermit me to ask him
whether this rumor is well founded or not? ’
“ Sir Eldon Gorst answered:
“ ‘ The rumor has no foundation, and you may contradict it
categorically. Great Britain has engaged herself by official
agreements with Turkey and the European Powers to respect
the suzerainty of the Sultan in Egypt. She will keep her en­
gagements, which, moreover, she reiterated in 1904 at the time
of the conclusion o f the Anglo-French agreement. England
Stipulated in that agreement that she lias no intention to change
the political situation in Egypt. Neither the people nor the
Government wish to rid themselves o f these engagements.’
“ 20. Sir Eldon Gorst’s report, March 27, 1909, Egypt No. 1
(1909) , page 1, stated:
“ ‘ There exists among the better-educated sections of society
a limited but gradually increasing class which interests itself
In matters pertaining to the government and administration of
the country. This elass aspires quite rightly to help in bringing
about the day when Egypt will be able to govern herself without
outside assistance. This is also the end to which British policy
is directed, and there need be no antagonism or principle be­
tween the Egyptian and English reforming elements.’
“ 21. In the same report, at page 48, Sir Eldon Gorst said:
“ * Since tin; commencement o f the occupation the policy ap­
proved by the British Government has never varied, and its
fundamental idea has been to prepare the Egyptians for selfgovernment while helping them in the meantime to enjoy the
benefit of good government.’
“ 22. Sir Eldon Gorst’s report, March 20, 1910, Egypt No. t
(1910) , page 51, stated:
“ ‘ British policy in Egypt in no way differs from that fol­
lowed by Great Britain all over the world toward countries
under her influence, namely, to place before all else the welfare
of their populations.’
“ 23. Sir Edward Grey, in the House o f Commons, August,
1914, said:
“ 1England stretches out her hand to any nation whose safety
or independence may be threatened or compromised by any
aggressor.’
“ 24. Former Premier Balfour, speaking for the Government
at Guild Hall, on November 19, 1914, declared:
“ ‘ We fight not for ourselves alone but for civilization drawn
to the cause o f small States, the cause o f all those countries
which desire to develop their own civilization in their own way,
following their own ideals without interference from any insolent
and unauthorized aggressor.’
“ 25. Premier Asquith, speaking at Guild Hal), November 9,
1915, asserted:
“ ‘ We shall not pause or falter until we have secured for the
smaller States their charter o f independence and for the world
at large its final emancipation from the reign o f force.’
“ 2(5. And, again, Premier Asquith, on November 9, 1910, de­
clared :
“ *This is a war, among other things—-perhaps I may say pri­
marily—a war for the emancipation o f the smaller States.
* * * Peace when it comes, must bo such as will build upon
a sure and stable foundation the security o f the weak, the liber­
ties of Europe, and a free future for the world.’




14 7 3 11— 20090




“ 27. Premier Lloyd-George, on June 29, 1917, said:
“ ‘ In my judgment this war will come to an end when the
allied powers have reached the aims which they set out to attain
when they accepted the challenge thrown down by Germany to
civilization.’
“ 28. Asquith, in the House o f Commons, on December 20,1917,
said :
“ 1We ought to make it increasing clear by every possible
means that the only ends we are fighting for are liberty and
justice for the whole world, through a confederation of great
and small States, all to possess equal rights. A league of na­
tions is the ideal for which we are fighting, and we shall con­
tinue fighting for it with a clear conscience, clean hands, and an
unwavering heart.’
“ After the beginning of the World War, and on December IS,
1914, Great Britain proclaimed a so-called protectorate over
Egypt. The proclamation seizing Egypt and placing Egypt un­
der the British flag is published in the London Times of Decem­
ber 19, 1914, page 8, column 3. It reads:
“ ‘ In view of the action of his highness Abbas Helml Pasha,
lately Khedive of Egypt, who has adhered to the King’s ene­
mies. His Majesty's Government has seen fit to depose him from
the khedirate, and that high dignity has been offered, with the
title o f Sultan of Egypt, to his highness Prince Hussein Gamel
Pasha, eldest living Prince o f the family of Mehemet Ali, and
has been accepted by him.
“ ‘ The King has been pleased to approve the appointment of
Prince Hussein to an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order
o f the Bath on the occasion of his accession to the sultanate.’
[Italics ours.]
“ The London Times, in the issue of December 19. 1914, had
large headlines saying, ‘ Egypt under the British flag.’ But the
Times, in an editorial in the Issue of same date, with character­
istic British diplomacy, naively said:
“ ‘All that is desired now is to defend Egypt against attack
and to keep the internal administration running smoothly.
Other questions can wait until peace is restored, as Lord Cromer
implies in the letter we published to-day. * * * It is purely
a practical administrative step, dictated by the appearance of
Turkey as a belligerent.’
“ It will be noted that the seizure was sought to be justified
only as a protection to Egypt against Turkish aggression. The
truth is that under the guise of a ‘ protectorate’ Great Britain
seized Egypt and swept away every vestige o f Egyptian freedom
and independence. But the people o f Egypt did not realize at
that time the full meaning o f this action on the part of Great
Britain. They were told that it was a step toward the inde­
pendence of Egypt. His Majesty King George, in a letter to the
Sultan whom he had appointed to rule over Egypt, which letter
was widely circulated throughout Egypt and was published in
the London Times of date December 21, 1914, said:
“ ‘ * * * I feel convinced that you will be able, with the
cooperation of your ministers and the protectorate of Great
Britain, to overcome all influences which arc seeking to destroy
the independence of Egypt. * * * ’ [Italics ours.]
147311— 20090

11

TREATMENT OF EGYPTIAN DELEGATES
PEACE CONFERENCE.

TO

11110 C H A IR M A N OF T H E E G Y P T IA N D EL EG As i O N E u % V ? o y i ? * - NALI> W IN G A T E > H K IT ISII H IG H GOMMIS[From the Egyptian W hite Book, p. 19.]

“ •J addressed to British headquarters on the 20tli instant
(November) a letter in which 1 requested for my colleague and
myself the permission necessary for voyage. * * * We have
just received a letter from the military authorities dated to-day,
informing us that dilliculties have arisen which have prevented
iliem from responding before and that as soon as they are
smoothed out we shall receive an answer. * * * We rely
upon
the traditions of Great Britain. The British have not
ceased to give to the world examples of the devotion to the
principles o f individual liberty. Will not our request for pass­
ports receive a quick and favorable response? ’
“ *° Hiis the following
ig letter was received on December 1,
1918, page 21:
■■•I am directed by his excellency, the high commissioner, to
acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 29tli ultimo and to
inform you in reply that after reference to His Majesty’s Gov­
ernment, his excellency feels unable to make any representations
to the military authorities in the matter.
“ ‘ 1 am to add that should you desire to submit suggestions as
to the government of Egypt, not being inconsistent with the policy
of llis Majesty’s Government as already declared, such sugges­
tions can most conveniently be submitted in writing to his ex­
cellency. In this connection I may draw your attention to the
communication addressed by Sir Mille Cheetham, proclamation
of protectorate by the British Government, December 38, 1914.
by instruction o f His Majesty’s Government to the late Sultan
Hussein on the occasion of Ids accession.’
- T o this tlie delegation replied on December
1918, as fol­
lows. page 22:
•••In response I allow myself to make known to your excel­
lency that it is not permitted, neither to me nor to any member
of the delegation, to make propositions which are liot in ac­
cordance with the will of the Egyptian nation a s expressed in
the mandates that have been given ns. * * * Forbidding
our departure makes illusory and inoperative the mission that we
have accepted by will o f the people. It is difficult to conciliate
this situation with the principles o f liberty and justice which the
victory of Great Britain stud her allies i s supposed to have caused
to triumph. This victory has repeatedly been declared to be for
the purpose o f opening a new era for mankind through listening
and granting the just demands o f peoples.’
" I n a letter of protest to Premier Lloyd-George against the
virtual imprisonment of the Egyptian delegation at Cairo, the
president of the delegation wrote (p. 26) :
“ *You have certainly been misinformed o f the circumstances
that accompanied our sequestration. We can not imagine how
sneli proceedings can be justified, whether from the point of
view o f law or social usage, or even o f reasonable policy, and
we can not understand how the British can apply systematically
so humiliating a treatment to a nation with the rich and
glorious past of ours. Whatever may lie its present weakness, a
147311—20090







12
nation with a civilization so ancient will always preserve before
the world its prestige and its title to the gratitude of the world.
“ ‘ Deny the civilization o f Egypt in spite of traces that attest
its glorious past; deny its benefits to the culture o f the world;
suppose that it is only an agglomeration of savages ruled by the
brutality of their instincts and without law—do you refuse to
believe that Egypt has been a precious aid to you? The enor­
mous sacrifice that we have made during the war in blood and
treasure for the triumph of your cause, were indispensable to
you, and moreover you have recognized many times that these
sacrifices were one of the principal factors of victory in the
Orient.
_
. . ,
•««* * * Even were you to suppose that Egypt had no
civilization and that Egypt gave you no aid. would you none
the less refuse to apply to her the principles which you ha\e
agreed with President Wilson to apply— impartial justice on
every side o f settlement no matter whose interest is crossed,
and not only impartial justice hut also the satisfaction of several
peoples whose fortunes are dealt w ith ?’
“ Egyptian case stated as follows in a letter from Egyptian
delegation to president of peace conference (p. 88) :
“ 4F,)r more than five months the British authorities refused
to allow our delegation to leave for Europe. Public opinion,
realizing that a peace conference had assembled and was taking
up the problems o f the Near East, and preparing a treat\ to
present to Germany, became aroused. The Egyptians insisted
that the authorization for our departure be granted. Standing
by the people, the cabinet presented its resignation, which s\as
accepted. The answer o f the British military authorities to
the official request of the Egyptian Government was to order
the arrest and deportation to Malta of the president of the
delegation and o f three o f his colleagues. They were taken
suddenly from their homes and hurried away under cover of
night. There was no trial, and they were not informed of the
reasons for their arrest and deportation. When they learned
of this act of violence, totally contrary to the law, there were
peaceful demonstrations throughout the country, in which all
classes took part. Government officials and the personnel of
railways and other transportation service, decided to strike.
The English thus saw that in the entire territory o f Egypt the
people of all classes. Irrespective of religion, were against their
domination, nevertheless they persisted in their wish to govern
by force of arms the people who did not want them.
‘“ The manifestations were suppressed by machine guns
which mowed down dozens of unfortunate demonstrators.
Since the Egyptians had no arms, the order to fire was totally
unwarranted. But frightfulness could not stop the Egyptians
from proceeding in their determination to make an effort to
obtain their independence. They had firm faith in the prin­
ciples o f President Wilson which had been solemnly accepted by
the Entente Allies. They felt that if their delegation could
only get to Paris that justice would be accorded to them. So, in^
spite of the death that awaited them, they advanced in groupj
in ecstasy, making the sacrifice o f their lives to the cause of
liberty,
“ ‘ Even the women were not spared. Without mentioning
those who fell on the field of honor during the national demon­
strations, we can cite the case o f the leading ladies o f Cairo
14 7 3 11— 20090

13
who organized under the leadership of the wife of the prime min­
ister, a demonstration to protest to the diplomatic agencies
against the murder of innocent and unarmed citizens in the
streets o f Cairo. Suddenly they were surrounded on all sides
by soldiers who pointed their guns at them. This inspired one
o f the Egyptian women to say “ Make of me if you will a second
Miss Cavell.” They were kept for more than two hours in the
burning sun. In proof ol' this statement, we refer to the testi­
mony of the agencies of the United States and Italy.
“ ‘ The British authorities in Egypt were as much disturbed as
provoked by the extent o f the movement and astonished at their
powerlessness to stop it. It was then that the spirit of venge­
ance got the better o f them, and they then allowed themselves
to indulge in the most disgraceful excesses. No longer content
to stop the demonstrations by means o f rifles and machine guns,
they were guilty in several places o f rape, o f assassination of
peaceful villagers, o f pillage, o f arson- -all with the most trifling
pretext or even without pretext. No longer was ic a question
of individual abuses committed by stray soldiers such as those
of which the minister o f justice and the'president o f the legisla­
tive assembly had been victims—no longer was it a question of
blows and thefts in the streets o f Alexandria and Cairo, attacks
began to be made by strong military attachments under the com­
mand of their officers in villages as well as eities.”

BRITISH VIEWS ON THE EGYPTIAN QUESTION.
“ Sir Thomas Barclay, vice president of the Institute ol’ Inter­
national Law, says in his book, ‘ New Methods of Adjusting In­
ternational disputes and the Future’ :
‘“ Turning to another aspect of international matters, it is
deeply to be regretted that in several instances in our own time
international treaties have not been regarded by public opinion
with the same respect as international awards. The attitude
of England toward Egypt, o f Italy toward Turkey, o f Russia
toward Persia, of France toward Morocco, and especially o f
Germany toward Belgium, all are instances o f eventual bad
faith, however justifiable the original intervention may have been
in the one ease or unjustifiable in the other. They are addi­
tional evidence o f the difficulty o f preserving the peace o f the
world even by the most solemn o f international undertakings.’ ”
[ E x c e r p t s f r o m a n a r t i c l e b y 1 lie R i g h t H o n . .T. M . R o b e r t s o n , f o r m e r
m e m b e r o f th e B r i t i s h C a b in e t , in th e C o n t e m p o r a r y R e v ie w o f M a y ,
1 9 1 9 , u n d e r t h e t i t l e o f “ T h e p r o b le m o f E g y p t ,” s a id in p a r t : ]

“ A rebellion in Egypt in 3919 has set all men elsewhere asking
the question, Why? In 1914 a rebellion was planned for by the
German enemy; how thoroughly the world has not yet been
informed. Hud it broken out, the causation would have licen
sufficiently obvious, apart from any known native discontent.
But that rebellion should have been averted then and should
blaze forth now, when the leagued enemies o f the British Em­
pire are prostrate in defeat, signifies a new causation. What
is it?
“ Some have put the hypothesis that Egyptian Moslems are
alarmed by the prospect of Jewish domination in Palestine. But
even if there were not express testimony that the Zionist leaders
have maintained thoroughly friendly relations with those of the




147311— 20090




Arabs, such an explanation would be plainly inadequate. Mos­
lem feeling in Egypt about Palestine could at most aggravate
other grounds of resentment; it could not motive a rebellion in
which the Moslems of Palestine have no share. Such a rising,
exhibiting no signs of direction from without, must be held to
signify grievances within E gypt; and new and special grievances
at that. The disorders reported from Cairo on April 14 appear
to involve riots directed against the Armenians and Greeks; and
it may be that the presence of a number o f Armenian refugees
has helped to foment fanaticism. But these attacks, as de­
scribed, have the appearance of being a sequel to the previous
insurrection rather than a key to its causation. Normally, the
Moslems in Egypt live on perfectly good terms with the numer­
ous Greeks; fanaticism being in fact not a normal factor in the
life of the Egyptian mass. And the remarkable statement made
by Miss M. E. Durham, in the Daily News, of April 2 would seem
to yield the explanation. Thus it runs:
“ 11 was in Egypt from November. 1915, to April, 191G, and can
confirm Dr. Haden Guest in his statement that it is to our own
treatment of the Egyptians that we owe the present trouble.
The authorities were certainly to blame in landing colonial
troops in Egypt without carefully instructing them as to the
population they would meet there. So ignorant were numbers
of these men that they imagined that Egypt was English, and
the natives of the land were intruders.
“ ‘ More than one Australian said that he would clear the lot
out if he had his way. They treated the natives with cruelty
and contempt. In the canteen in which I worked a very good
native servant was kicked and knocked about simply because
he did not understand an order given him by a soldier. An
educated native in the town was struck in the mouth and had
his inlaid walking stick forcibly snatched from him by a soldier
who wanted it. More than one English resident said to me:
“ It will take years to undo the harm that has been done here
by the army.” Personally I felt that were I an Egyptian I
should have spared no effort to evict the British. I felt ashamed
o f my country—bitterly ashamed. The opinion of the native for
the soldier was amusingly illustrated by a small conversation
book, one phrase o f which was to the effect; “ You fo o l; what
for you spend ail your money on b eer?” and a dialogue with a
beggar which ended; “ I am p oor; I am miserable,” to which
the Briton replied : “ Go to hell.”
“ ‘ I spoke with great severity frequently to the soldiers,
telling them that by their conduct they were proving themselves
the enemies o f England; that the Germans maltreated the
enemy, but that they were attacking their own side and would
make enemies. This surprised them very much. They ivere
absolutely ignorant of the situation.
“ ' To make matters worse, for the first few days after the
troops arrived in quantities, the drink shops were all open all
day, and the unlovely results filled the natives with disgust and
contempt. It was reported. I do not know with what truth,
that drunken men had snatched the veils from Moslem women.
The tale was believed by the natives.
M‘ Small wonder if they hate and dread us.’
“ It is probably necessary to impress upon many people in
this country that the insolent outrage such as that described,
inflicted upon people In their own country by a dominant alien
147311— 20090

race, is about as maddening to tlie indigenous population as
Englishmen found many of the tales of German brutality to
British prisoners and subject Belgians during the war. The
blood boils in Egypt perhaps more easily than in England. And
if any o f our people continue to argue, as many o f them did a
dozen or more years ago, that Egyptians ought to be too thank­
ful for our beneficent rule to feel rebelliously about individual
grievances, it will be more necessary than ever to point out that
such reasoning tells only of an incurable moral blindness. Old
chronicles are full o f rebellion arising out o f individual out­
rages ; and a nation collectively grateful to an alien race for
ruling it is not among the portents o f history.
“ How government has gone in Egypt during the war it was
practically impossible for us at home to know. It was no time
for discussing reforms; and military rule had to prevail there
at least as much as here. But when the world is intent upon a
peace settlement which is to remedy as far as may be all the
grievances of subjected peoples, it would be idle to suppose that
wild mutiny and stern repression (going to the length of bomb­
ing open villages) can go on In Egypt without comment or
criticism from our allies, to say nothing of our late enemies.
“ If Egypt were under any rule but British, British critics in
general would hold it a matter of course that such a mutiny as
has recently been quelled there must signifv some kind of misgovernment. The fact that we can quell a mutiny by bombing,
from aeroplanes, the open villages o f a population which simply
can not organize a military resistance, is no proof whatever
either o f the general badness of the Egyptian cause or the good­
ness of ours.
“ Becollections o f the history of Boland might suffice to move
thinking men in this country to seek for a policy which shall
not merely ‘ hold down ’ the Egyptian people now but make it
unnecessary lo hold them down in future. Whatever the pa­
triots in Parliament and the Nortlicliffe press may say for the
moment, this bombing of open villages and flogging o f rioters
can not improve our reputation either in Christendom or in the
Moslem w orld; and it will not be permanently possible even for
the patriots to keep up a denunciation o f Germans for their past
bombing of noncombatants here while we bomb noncombatants
in Egypt. And there is a painful probability that such episodes
Avill recur unless we make a new departure in Egyptian Gov­
ernment.
“ B ,s presumably' well known that the present system is one
embodying a few of the forms without any o f the realities of
self-government. At every stage at which those forms have
been adjusted the obvious purpose was to give nothing approach
ing real power o f any kind either to the mass of the people or
to Egyptian ministers who nominally administered. For such
a policy of emasculation the private defense has always been
that neither ministers nor people can be trusted, the former to
govern or the latter to control them. It may simplify the dis­
cussion to admit that for this plea there is some justification.
Tt would be hard to prove that the majority o f the electors iii
Britain who polled at the last general election are well qualified
to vote. They are now showing signs o f a change of feeling
which could hardly he paralleled in oriental history for quick­
ness and completeness. That being so, it is not to he supposed




147311— 20090




16

that the people o f Egypt are properly fitted to exercise political
power. But that does not alter the fact that in Egypt, as in
Europe, the only way in which any population can become fitted
to exercise political power is to begin using some degree of
political choice.
“ Certainly it is important that some amount o f education, in
the ordinary sense o f the term, should precede political en­
franchisement—though a franchise long subsisted with a low
standard o f popular education in our own country. But Eng­
lishmen can not long, plead lack o f education in Egypt as a
ground for denying it any measure of real self-government,
when it is bv the decision of the British control that Egypt
remains so largely uneducated. The policy of Lord Cromer in
that regard was fatally transparent. Until within a short
time of his resignation he refused even the appeal o f his Brit­
ish (the controlling) minister of education to spend more than
£200,000 a year on the schooling of a nation numbering some
twelve millions. The finances o f Egypt, he declared, did not
admit o f an expenditure much in excess of that. When criti­
cism was brought to bear In the British Parliament he quickly
discovered that he could spend the £400,000 his minister had
asked fo r; and since his day the expenditure has greatly in­
creased, still without giving Egypt a good system o f schools.
‘‘ The reforms, such as they are, have been largely the result
of native pressure. Egyptians of all classes have long agitated
for better and better schools, and in particular for a good mod­
ern university. Before the advent of the British control Egypt
was to a very considerable extent in a state of educational
progress. A study o f the catalogue o f the Khedlval Library in
1900 revealed that quite a large number of scientific and other
works had been translated into Arabic, chiefly from the French,
in the days of Ismail and his predecessors. Yet when it was
urged upon Lord Cromer’s Government that science teaching
should be introduced into the program o f the secondary schools
the official answer was that hooks for the purpose did not
exist. As they had existed a generation before, the irresistible
conclusion was that the British control had let Egypt retro­
grade from the level reached under Moslem rule. So reaction­
ary was the influence o f the Cromer tradition that only after
much pressure was it made possible for students o f agriculture
in Egypt to secure instruction in their own language. The
Cromer tradition was that they must master either French or
English for the purpose. Let the reader try to imagine what
would he said of a British Government that refused to give
instruction in scientific agriculture to farmers’ sons save in a
foreign language.
“ It is perfectly true that Lord Cromer managed Egyptian
finances well and economically, in contrast with the extremely
bad management of the old regime. Probably no native gov­
ernment could have approached to t'le efficiency, to say nothing
of the rectitude, o f the British control in finance. As to all
that there is no dispute; but it savors almost o f burlesque to
argue that the duty of the British control toward Egypt was
fulfilled when Egypt was made to pay full interest on all its
debts and meet the whole costs, civil and military, o f the Brit­
ish administration. For generations past it has been an axiom
in our politics that it is the business o f governments to look to
147311— 20090

17

tlie moral welfare of tlic nation as well as to its finance, and
it is upon their contributions to that welfare that political
parties now mainly found their claims to support. The very
backwardness of Egypt was a ground for special measures to
promote her moral progress. To make the defense o f British
rule consist in having regulated her finances and increased her
productivity while leaving her more backward than ever in the
elements of qualification for self-government was to discredit
the cause that was defended. The obvious answer of every im­
partial foreigner to such a plea would be: ‘ You claim credit
and gratitude for having secured the safe payment o f your own
bondholders, in whose interest you originally entered Egypt.
Orderly government was essential to that. To earn credit and
gratitude you must do a good deal more. You must raise the
levels of life for the people of Egypt as you confessedly seek to
raise them for your people at home. And you must know—
what nation can know better?—that a people declared unfit to
manage their own affairs are thereby pronounced low in the
human scale.’
“ It is, to say the least, unfortunate for the British Govern­
ment that such an outbreak in Egypt should follow immediately
on the close of the World War, when ‘ self-determination for
subject races ’ passes for a principle with the peace conference.
Had those responsible for the control of Egypt in the past
sought to fulfill our old pledges with more o f good will and
good faith, we might have escaped this unpleasant emergency,
though it will doubtless be argued that Lord Morley’s progres­
sive measures in India did not avert sedition there in 1914 and
later. But the conclusion come to by responsible inquirers as
regards India is obviously still more compulsive as regards
Egypt. Our duty to prepare that country for self-government
has been again and again officially avowed from the time o f our
first entrance; and those who think we can forever go on sim­
ply repressing discontent and maintaining the status quo are
plainly unteachable by events. If the British control does not
get newly into touch with intelligent native opinion, the situa­
tion will infallibly go from bad to worse, and this in the eves
of a world newly critical of •imperialism.’ That long-vaunted
ideal has somewhat rapidly become a term o f censure for
whole nations.
“ We shall be faced, as a matter o f course, with the regulation
formula that there can be no talk o f concessions to a people
who have been recently in rebellion. The Russian bureaucracy
used to talk in that fashion, and we have seen the outcome. If
those responsible for British rule in Egypt have in any degree
learned the lesson, they will as soon as possible set about secur­
ing native support by taking natives into council; by giving room
for real initiative to the nominal Egyptian ministers, who must
know a good deal more about Egypt than do more than a few
of the British bureaucracy there, civil or m ilitary; and by giv­
ing some reality to the form o f self-government which thus far
has been allowed to count for next to nothing in Egyptian
politics. Before the war there were chronic and bitter com­
plaints about the disregard o f native wishes, as expressed by
the elected representatives, in regard to matters o f administra­
tion nearly concerning Egyptian welfare. During the war there,
as here, must have been the possible minimum o f consultation




147311— 20090




of the people. Perhaps what has happened in the English byelections within the last month or two may suffice to suggest
to the British Government that the sooner it resumes touch
with public opinion everywhere the better it will be for na­
tional stability, to say nothing of the stability of the ministry.
Egyptian mutiny is only the nouconstitutional version o f the
dissatisfaction that expresses itself in elections in the constitu­
tional country. And, to put the case at its lowest, the safe
course is to set about making Egypt constitutional.
“ J . M. R o b k r t s o x . ”
“ Capt. Wedgwood Bonn, in the House of Commons on May
15, initiated a debate on the state o f affairs in Egypt. Among
other things, he sa id :
“ 4It was not too much to say that the reason for the calm­
ness in Egypt, even when the Turks were successful and had
overrun the Sinai Peninsula, was that the Egyptians trusted
that the assistance they had rendered to the Empire In the war
would not be permitted to interfere with the satisfaction of
their legitimate aspirations. * * *
“ 4The peace that had reigned in 1914, because there was
trust, was converted by somebody in 1919, when there was dis­
appointment, into a national insurrection. * * * The unrest
among that large, busy, and influential class o f people was
caused by the fact that changes were in the air and nobody
had been consulted. The underlying cause was that the status'
o f Egypt had been altered.’
44Mr. Spoor (Bishop Auckland) said in the House o f Com­
mons on the same d a y :
“ ‘ The situation in Egypt appeared to have been aggravated
enormously because Egypt was under military control, and mili­
tary control o f a very short-sighted kind. The methods of gov­
erning Egypt had become more and more military; and in re­
gard to the censorship of information which was allowed to be
sent from that country, it was interesting to note that the Times
asserted ever since 1914 it had been the most inept and most
savagely ruthless censorship in any country under British con­
trol.
“ 'There were facts which could be thoroughly well au­
thenticated o f atrocities o f the most extreme kind that had
been committed with the full sanction o f our own military au­
thorities. * * * The allegation (o f atrocities) had become
so general, not only in this country but throughout Europe,
that it was high time an inquiry was held.’

FRENCH VIEWS.
[Speech of M. d o m i c , of t h e F r e n c h C h a m b e r o f Deputies, at tie- sitting
of S e p t . 4, l'Jli). T r a n s l a t e d f r o m Lc J o u r n a l Otfieiel.)

“ M. Goude: In his speech o f yesterday M. Franklin-Boullon
said that under the appearance o f 4no compromise’ M. Clemenceau had surrendered on every point.
441 will try to show that the president o f the council (prime
minister) at any rate adopted these tactics when it canto to
settling a question that lie understands thoroughly, a question
often discussed from this tribune and itism which the prime
minister lias often spoken.
147311— 20090

19
“ Article 147 of tlie treaty submitted to us for ratification
says:
“ ‘ Germany declares that she recognizes the protectorate
proclaimed over Egypt by Great Britain on the 18tli o f Decem­
ber, 1914/
“ This means that Egypt is placed under the protectorate o f
England without this agreement having ever been ratified by
Parliament. Neither in the treaty o f peace nor in the report o f
M. Maurice Long has one dared to directly approach this ques­
tion ; it is well known that it is a thorny one and that it is
absolutely contrary to all the principles laid down by the En­
tente Governments during the course o f the war.
“ It is known that at the present moment— in spite o f their
appeals to all the parliaments and all the politicians of the
Entente a people are being placed under the domination of
another people. This is being done in an underhand way.
We are not asked at first—we the French Chamber—to ratify
an agreement recognizing the protectorate declared by England
over Egypt in 1914, but we are to ld : ‘ We are compelling Ger­
many to recognize the protectorate proclaimed by England over
Egypt/
“ The question is brought up, I repeat, in an underhand
way, because it is known that if the sole question o f the English
protectorate in Egypt was brought before Parliament a great
debate would spring up, and I am convinced that if this question
was the only one under discussion before you such a project o f
the treaty would never be approved. I therefore wish to know
and I ask for what reasons the French Government thinks it
right to place under English domination the Egyptian people,
who protest with all their might and all their energy, as I will
show.
“ Is it not well known that Egypt has always shown its de­
termination to be independent? Is it not well known that it is
worthy of this independence?
The prime minister himself has vigorously defended the dig­
nity o f Egypt. He knows, as we do, that the production of
Egypt supports its 10,000,000 of inhabitants, including Egyptians
and Soudanese; that almost all the landed property belongs
to Egyptians; that its farms are cultivated by native-born sub­
jects to the exclusion o f all others; that this country had in
1913 a foreign commerce amounting in value to 12,000.000,000
francs (about 82,400,000,000) ; that the national budget of
Egypt is 800,000,000 francs (about $160,000,000); that intel­
lectual Egyptians cultivate French traditions; that there exists
in this country boys’ and girls' colleges in large numbers, as
well as different high schools, where the French language is
exclusively employed, without forgetting the celebrated law
school.
“ Fifty years ago the Khedive could declare:
“ ‘ My country is no longer in Africa. It is a part of Europe/
“ Thirty years or so ago, the prime minister, rising in this
tribune to defend Egyptian independence as I defend it to-day,
declared:
“ ‘ I do not desire to enter into ethnographic consideration as
regard the Egyptian race—this is not the place for it—but
it is certain that this race, o f which we see some remarkable
specimens amongst us, in our schools, is a calm and docile
147311— 20090







race— too docile, it may be said at certain moments—susceptible
o f culture and application, an industrious race o f which surely
one has every reason to expect much. No one can stand up in
this tribune, no one will come into this Parliament of the
Republic to say that these men are incapable of freeing them­
selves and that we owe no other duty to them, except to govern
them with a courbash and a cudgel.’
“ [ ‘ Hear! H e a r !’ at the extreme left.]
“ Thirty-two years ago the prime minister made these declara­
tions. Since then, as we know, European civilization has been
spreading itself more and more in Egypt, which ardently
desires to Europeanize its civilization, which is modifying its
political structure, which has extended the suffrage to all
citizens, who have attained their twentieth year—a reform that
certain European nations might well envy.
“ It must be remembered that at the moment of the declara­
tion of war, on the 2d o f August, 1914, Egypt was independent under the sole suzerainty o f the Sultan of Turkey.
This suzerainty, approved in 1840 by the European powers,
consisted in the payment each year by Egypt o f a tribute of
15,000,000 francs to the Sultan—and that was all. Having
done this, it had an absolute right recognized by the European
powers, to manage its own affairs according to its fancy and
to have its own constitution. I know well that little by little
England, by the force o f her armies, had got hold o f Egyptian
institutions, that the members o f the Government were hardly
anything more than English officials, and that the President of
the L e g i s l a t i v e Assembly is appointed by the Government. But
this was putting into practice the formula against which we
are all struggling: ‘ Might is right.’ England had no precise
and express right in Egypt. The most famous English poli­
ticians, the heads o f the Government, have said so on several
occasions, as, for instance, Gladstone, who in the House o f
Commons as far back as the 2.3d of June, 1884, stated:
“ ‘ We pledge ourselves not to prolong our military occupation
in Egypt beyond the 1st o f January, 1888.’
“ it is the same prime minister who said, on the I8tli o f Sep­
tember, 1885:
“ ‘ England ought to withdraw from Egypt as soon as Britisli
honor will permit o f it. We will never admit that there can
ho any question o f annexation, o f a protectorate, or even of an
indefinite prolongation of the English occupation, and we re­
pudiate all idea of any compensation whatsoever for the efforts
and sacrifices that we have made up to this day. English
policy is founded on an error, and what is best to be done in
a matter like this is promptly to put an end to such an inter­
vention.’
“ It is Lord Salisbury who said on the 10th of June, 1887, in
the House o f Lords:
“ ‘ Her Majesty’s Government, by virtue of its previous en­
gagements and o f the rules of international law’, does not think
that it can place Egypt under a protectorate. Its rule should bo
limited to coming to an understanding with the Porte to defend
the interests of 'the Khedive against political calamities and to
main the statu quo in the valley o f the Nile.’
“ There has been a large number o f the declarations, but to
shorten matters I will only quote the one made by Lord Salis­
bury In the House o f Lords on the 12th o f August, 18.80:
147311—20090

21
“ ‘ VVe can not proclaim our protectorate over Egypt nor our
intention to occupy it effectively and perpetually f this would
amount to breaking the international pledges signed by Eng­
land.’
“ Such was the state of the question during the occupation.
In the agreement called the * entente cordiale,’ concluded in 3904
between France and England, article 1 begins as follows:
The Government o f His Britannic Majesty declares that it
has not the intention to change the political state o f Egypt.’
^ “ In the course of the discussion of the Fashoda affair, when
England asked me to withdraw, it was not because the Sudan
belonged or could belong to England; it was because o f Eng­
land s declaration that it was Egyptian territory. England has,
then, clearly recognized on every' occasion the independence of
Egypt.
Has the country, which was independent under the sole
suzerainty o f the Sultan and under the conditions that I have
precisely indicated, become less deserving o f our consideration
during the war? Is there any reason for modifying, by lowering
it, the political status o f Egypt?
\ou know that Egypt came at once and took her stand with
the Allies. It must not be forgotten that the silver thread to
which I referred a moment ago still bound it to Turkey.
“ Before Turkey declared war Egypt placed itself at the dis­
posal o f England— of the English consul general—by saying:
“ ‘ If you will promise us our complete independence, if the
English armies undertake to quit our country after the war, we
Mill place our financial resources, our provisions, our arms, and
our sons, all, in fact, that we possess, at your entire disposal ;
we are ready to go with you to the Continent to defend the inter­
ests of the Allies.’
“ To the offer thus made at this moment England replied by a
downright refusal.
Later the situation got worse. Turkey, who was suzerain
over Egypt, went to war against the Allies. Egypt renewed its
offer in the same way. The Sultan, be it noted, had proclaimed
a holy war. Do not forget that Egypt is a Mussulman country,
but a country of semi-European civilization, where a very lively
sympathy for Europe exists. In spite o f the powerful effect that
the proclamation of the holy war might have on the peasant
masses, who are profoundly Mussulman in sentiment, Egypt,
attracted by European culture, came to us and said once more •
‘ Insure us our independence after the war and we are with you"
body and soul.’
“ We have made use of Egypt; it is the Egyptian artillery
which checked the impetus of the German-Turkish armies in
February, 1935, when these armies tried to seize the Suez Canal
and to cut our communications. Egypt put its cotton at the
disposal o f Europe. Later on, in face of the necessity of grow­
ing wheat, it abandoned the profitable production of cotton in
order to cultivate wheat, and it put all its provisions at the
disposal o f the army o f Salonica, which it victualed to a great
extent.
“ With a population o f 13,000,000 of inhabitants it has placed
1,200.000 workers at the disposal o f the Entente—a figure recog­
nized as exact by the English.
All this Egypt has done for the Entente. Have we now
the right as a recompense for these services to violate the very
147311— 20090




'iig

!» 1

t.

*




22
principles tliat everyone here Invokes, the principles which
have been laid down with precision by President Wilson, when,
for instance, lie said, ‘ Peoples ought not be passed on from one
sovereignty to another by an- international conference or an
arrangement between rivals and adversaries.’ [ ‘ Hear, hear,’
from several benches of the extreme left.] The national aspi­
rations ought to be respected. The peoples ought to-day be gov­
erned by their own consent.
“ Is it not there, besides an international interest, that
Egypt shall not be placed under the domination o f a European
power? I have here under my eyes a short extract from a
speech o f M. de Freycinet, then prime minister, who on the 27th
o f November, 1880, summed up admirably the Egyptian question
by saying:
'■ ‘ Egypt is a sort of crossing for the Old
orld. It is a
j u n c t i o n between Europe, Asia, and Africa.
It is a highway
which permits of the penetration o f the Far East possessions.
Besides, he who is master of Egypt is master to a great extent
o f the Mediterranean. It is certain that if a great power in­
stalled itself definitely in Egypt this would be a very heavy
blow to French influence in the Mediterranean in such a man­
ner that, in my estimation, France ought never reconcile her­
self to the idea that Egypt could definitely fall into the hands of
a European power.’ [‘ Hear, hear,’ from the extreme left.]
“ This is an undoubted fact. And the question ought not to
be examined merely from a material standi>oint, but also from
a moral point of view. This Mussulman country into which
European civilization penetrates little by little is being driven
by us into a corner where violence is its only recourse. This is
henceforth its only political issue. We could, however, have
made of Egypt a point o f contact between eastern and western
civilization. [‘ Hear, hear,’ from the extreme left.] This is ex­
actly what we are not doing.
“ Not only will this country, which came o f its own accord
to the Entente, receive no compensation, hut by virtue o f the
treaty of peace its hounds will he tightened and its chains
made heavier.
** * * * ju yds Chamber, which during such a long time
and so very justly complained o f the Bismarekian policy, which
had left in the side of France the painful scar o f AlsaceLorraine, it is my desire to declare that it is helping to create
at this moment another Alsace-Lorraine.
“ 4 M. J ean L onguet . Ten Alsace-Lorraiues.’
*“ M. Goude. Certainly, many Alsace-Lorraiues; but this onc
Is particularly characteristic. * * * ’
“ Egypt, which during the whole o f the war and in order to
insure the victory o f the Allies, has endured without com­
plaining the yoke o f English militarism, which lias borne with
all the measures o f censure, with all the house searches, trial
sentences etc.
**4M. J ean L onguet. With the atrocities!
444M. G oude. Atrocities. Yes; that is the word. Egypt will
have no more o f that now. It is in full open revolt. You are
aware that the president o f the Egyptian Council (Egyptian
prime minister), who, however, Is a nominee o f the English
and in a certain sense an English official, found the Egyptian
people so unanimous against this domination and the pro147311— 20090

2a
tectorute that ho resigned. You know that the officials who
are specially under English authority, seeing that their written
protests were distorted, went out on a general strike in order
to emphasize their vote o f independence. You are aware that
the workingmen are on strike; that revolts have taken place
in the streets, in which all classes and creeds have been united
by a common determination to win independence; that crowds
have been fired upon; that there have been massacres; and that
condemnations have been pronounced.’
“ Here we have a university professor— a fellow— condemned
to penal servitude for life for having made a speech in favor
of independence. Here, again—to mention one case amongst
many others— we have Ibrahim Chalami sent to the gallows
for having cried out at the head o f a demonstration, ‘ Liberty,
equality, fraternity.’
^• Haiitiie. They condemn even those who crv “ Long live
France.
“ ‘ M. G oude. There are thousands o f examples o f this kind.
To maintain its protectorate, England has at present 150,000
soldiers, she is obliged to keep soldiers in every village, because amongst university men, notables, commercial men, fella­
heen, no one will accept this domination at any price and
everyone demands independence. Thrilling appeals have been
addressed to President Wilson, M. Clemenceau, to the chair­
man of our peace commission, to the Italian, American, and
English Parliaments.’
M. J ean L onguet. They are all deaf.’

“ ‘ M. G ouge. But at all times and everywhere everybody
remains deaf except, however, the American Senate, the* com­
m is s io n
o f which has proclaimed that Egypt ought to be as
Independent o f English diplomacy as of Turkish diplomacy,
and that It must bo left master o f its own destinies.*
“ ‘ Monsieur le President o f the Council,’ said the orator ad­
dressing M. Clemenceau, ‘ not only have you abaudoned Egypt
that you know personally, since, I repeat to you, you have
spoken very hard words against our friends* the English,
from this very tribune when this question was under discus­
sion, bnt, what is graver still—what seems to me monstrous—
is that a peace conference brought together to settle the ques­
tion of the entire world has, upon the orders o f the English
Government, refused to hear the Egyptian delegation, composed,
as you well know, o f the president o f the Chamber o f Depu­
ties o f that country, o f members o f Parliament, o f representa­
tives o f the intellectual classes, and of Egyptian notables.
And by refusing to hear them you have precipitated Egypt
into the only path left open to it— the path o f violence»
“ I ask you, M. the president of the council, how can E<wnt
otherwise get out of the situation in which you have placed it?
Yes; by your attitude and your decisions you have decreed for
that country violence and revolution.
“ Tou said o f Egypt that its inhabitants were pacific and do­
cile—too docile, perhaps. A heap o f iniquities have indeed l)een
necessary to provoke the revolt o f such a peaceable race.
“ How is it possible to better such a situation? Is there anv
means of doing so? To whom should the Egvptian national rep­
resentatives apply? They already have tried all the means at
their disposal.
14 7 3 11— 20090







24
“ The vice president o f the Chamber of Deputies and several
o f his colleagues have been imprisoned simply because they
wanted to come to Europe to be heard by a delegation of the
peace conference. And never at any single moment has tills
conference been willing to listen to them.
“ More Ilian that, the Egyptian Army has been utilized during
the war to occupy Hedjaz. The Egyptian armies have been
equally employed to occupy Soudan and put a stop to the Ger­
man maneuvers. To-day at the conference o f the peace, the King
of Hedjaz is received—a King entirely of English manufacture
created in order that England might have an additional vote.
And this King, who has just come into existence, who repre­
sents a country inhabited exclusively by nomadic tribes—this
King has been given the right to sign a treaty in which a protec­
torate has been imposed on the neighboring Egyptian people.
“ To this point have you gone in your injustices toward Egypt,
and yet, M. le president of the council, when you delivered
the speech that I have recalled— on the question o f Egypt and
the Anglo-French relations—you concluded by saying: ‘Assuredly
i f the end o f the Anglo-French alliance such as it has been de­
picted to us and such as it would be applied in practice was to
organize with our aid the slavery o f the Egyptian people and to
reduce them to the position o f an inferior race, I would repudiate
it with the greatest energy, and I would say to our pretended
allies— to our accomplices, I should call them—that I refund
my share o f responsibility in such a reprehensible undertaking.
“ Thirty years ago you expressed yourself in this manner.
Since then Egypt has progressed; it has come closer and closer
to European civilization. And you want to-day to make us
share the responsibility for the crime committed against Egypt
in the peace treaty. For my part, T will not lend myself to it.
Besides, I am certain that the English people repudiating Eng­
lish bourgeois traditions [applause on some benches o f the ex­
treme left] and united with the French people, will soon redress
the injustice and the crime that you are committing by once more
enslaving Egypt. [Applause at extreme left.]”

AMERICAN VIEWS.
“ President Wilson, in his great address at Mount Vernon, the
home o f Washington, on July 4 , 1918, sa id :
“ ‘ There can be hut one issue. The settlement must be tiual.
There can bo no compromise. No lialf-way decision would be tol­
erable. No half-way decision is conceivable. These are the ends
for which the associated peoples o f ihe world are fighting, and
which must be conceded them before there can be i>eaee. * *
The settlement o f every question, whether of territory or sover­
eignty or economic arrangement or o f political relationship upon
the basis of the free acceptance of that settlement by the people
immediately concerned and not upon the basis of th>' material
interest or advantage of any other nation or people which may
desire a different settlement for the sake of its own influence or
mastery. * * * What we seek is the reign of law based upon
the consent o f the governed and sustained by the organized
opinion o f mankind.’ [Italics ours.]
“ Shall Egypt, without the consent of the Egyptians, be turned
over to England for the sake o f England's influence or mastery?
147311— 20000

25
“ In the 14 points advanced by President Wilson we find the fol­
lowing pertinent* and applicable provisions:
Point 14. A general association of nations must be formed
under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual
guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to
great and small States alike.' [Italics ours.]
Ibis principle applied to Egypt would lead to a conclusion di­
rectly opposite to the indorsement o f the British seizure o f Egypt
and destruction o f Egypt’s independence.
‘‘Applying the principle o f the seventh point to Egypt and only
substituting the word ‘ Egypt ’ for ‘ Belgium,’ the seventh point

w m iln

r o f in •

Egypt, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and
restoied without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she
enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single
act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the
nations^ in the laws which they have themselves set and deter*<n t^G‘ £°vernment of their relations with one another.
Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of
international hm is forever impaired.’ [Italics ours.] ”

THE QUESTION OF EGYPT.
[P r o m

.

th e

W a s h in g to n

T o st,

T h u rsd ay,

O c t.

16,

1 9 1 9 .]

“ The question of Egypt’s status is brought to the front by
Senator O w e n ’ s proposed reservation— interpretative resolu­
tion— to the peace treaty. The fact that this reservation— resolu­
tion— is offered by a Democrat, a strong supporter of the Presi­
dent, increases the weight of the objections which are finding
voice in the United States against the snuffing out o f the principle of self-determination of well-defined nationalities. Presi­
dent \\ "son gained the support o f liberty-loving men throughout
the world when he set forth that principle and announced that
it would be made effective at Paris. Jn so far as the conference
adheied to this principle its work was good and permanent, and
\\heie\ei the piinciple was violated there have been disorders
ami threats o f war.
“ Senator O w e n ’ s proposed reservation (resolution) provides
that the Biltish protectorate over Egypt shall be recognized as
merely a means through which the nominal suzerainty of
Turkey over Egypt shall be transferred to the Egyptian peo­
ple, and shall not he construed to mean recognition by the
United States of British sovereignty over the Egyptian people.
“ The story of British ascendancy over Egypt, now apparently
to cultiminate in the extinction o f self-government is compara­
tively brief. The first occupation by British troops was in 1882
and the ostensible object was to suppress a rebellion against
the Khedive. The occupation was to be only temporary aceording to Premier Gladstone. He declared that England had given
‘ specific and solemn pledges to the world * that it would not
annex Egypt, and he added that these pledges had earned for
England the confidence o f Europe. Evidently there was no in­
tention at that time to absorb Egypt. Yet the troops were not
withdrawn, and have never been withdrawn, notwithstanding
147311— 20090




6




26

the persistent efforts of the Egyptian people to recover ihe
practical independence they had enjoyed.
“ After the World W ar began the British Government re­
moved the Khedive and appointed another, as a war measure,
and announced that Egypt was placed under a British protec­
torate. The Egyptian people might have been alarmed by this
had not King George himself sent a letter to the Egyptians,
telling them that the change was but a step toward the com­
plete independence o f the people, and that the protectorate
would endure only during the war period. This reassurance
was satisfactory, and the Egyptians joined the Allies heartily,
furnishing troops and large numbers of laborers who built the
railroads, pipe lines, and other military works in Palestine and
elsewhere.
“ When the armistice was signed the Egyptians believed the
day of their national independence to be at hand. They sent a
commission to Paris to attend the peace conference and to ar­
range for recognition of the independence of Egypt. But the
leaders o f this commission were seized by British officers and
deported to Malta, where they were placed in a German prison
camp.
“ From that hour there has been a smoldering volcano o f re­
volt in Egypt. The people have had several serious clashes with
British soldiers In which machine guns have quelled popular
uprisings. In the meantime Great Britain has obtained from
President Wilson a conditional recognition of the protectorate
over Egypt, and In the peace treaty is a clause requiring Ger­
many to recognize the protectorate.
“ The intentions o f Great Britain toward Egypt are some­
what confused in the minds of other Governments on account of
conflicting statements issued by British authority. When the
Egyptian question was before the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations on September 2, the British Embassy here made pub­
lic a statement declaring that * the British Government has
carefully avoided destroying Egyptian sovereignty,’ and that the
British flag in Egypt covered only British military establish­
ments. But the British foreign ofliee a few days later an­
nounced that Great Britain had succeeded to the sovereignty
o f Turkey over Egypt and had acquired Egypt as spoils o f war,
apparently discarding the pledge o f King George and develop­
ing a new policy o f permanent control over Egypt.
“ It may be that unfortunately worded or unauthorized state­
ments by British officials are at the bottom of the public con­
fusion. In that case a clear reaffirmation o f Britain’s intention
to relinquish the protectorate and restore Egypt to its people
as soon as the peace treaty is ratified would remove all appre­
hension. In the meantime, taking the treaty as It finds it, the
Senate will doubtless adopt a reservation on the lines sug­
gested by Senator O w k n , for it is quite evident that the United
States can not consistently subscribe to si general principle of
self-determination and independence o f nations and yet concur
in the involuntary absorption o f Egypt by Great Britain.”
147311— 20090

27

EGYPTIAN BETRAYAL THE MOST HEINOUS OF
THE REACTIONIST WRONGS.
[ B y G e o r g e H . S li i b le y .]

“ The case o f the people o f Egypt is a betraval the most
heinous o f the reactionist wrongs.
*' Dn December 21, 1914, five months after the opening of the
Avar, the British Liberal Government, after deposing the Egyp­
tian Khedive and placing in office a Sultan of their own choos­
ing, spoke as follows to the people of Egypt in the name o f the
King o f England:
' I feel convinced that you [the new Sultan] will be able,
wdh the cooperation of your ministers and the protectorate of
Great Britain, to overcome all influences which are seeking to
destroy the independence of Egypt * *
(London Times.)
And yet the so-called peace conference o f the allied coalition
governments has actually refused to the. 13,00Q.000 Egyptians
llicit independence under the protection of the league of nations,
and the Biitish Reactionist Rovernwent has shot down hundreds
of the Egyptians who had the manhood to assert their lawfully
established! lights, won in p a r t o f the lives and the sacrifices
of wc Americans!

EGYPT’S SOVEREIGNTY VIOUTED.
[B y H e r b e r t A d a m s G ib b o n s , s o m e tim e fe llo w o f P r in c e to n U n iv e r s it y
a u th o r o f th e N ew M a p o f E u ro p e, th e N e w M a p o f A s ia , th e N e w
M a p o f A fr ic a , etc ]

“ The ‘ interpretative resolutions ’ presented by Senator O w en
in the Senate on Tuesday greatly encourage liberal thinkers, who
are dissatisfied with the treaty at Versailles not for party or
internal but for international reasons. Senator O w e n is a
Democrat and a loyal supporter of the administration. He makes
it clear that he intends to vote for ratifying the treaty without
amendment or reservation. But he feels that the Senate, while
unqualifiedly accepting the document from a technical point of
view, should not fall to let the world know how the United
States stands in regard to many o f its provisions.
“ Senator O w en wants the United States to start to work
immediately for a change in the league covenant that will give
freedom to subject States capable o f self-government. Senator
O w en mentions specifically a great wrong done to a sovereign
State by the treaty o f Versailles.
“ ‘ That the protectorate which Germany recognizes in Great
Britain over Egypt,’ reads the Owen resolution, ‘ is understood
to be merely a means through which the nominal suzerainty of
Turkey over Egypt shall be transformed to the Egyptian people
and shall not be construed as a recognition by the United States
in Great Britain o f any sovereign rights over the Egyptian peo­
ple or as depriving the people of Egypt o f any right of selfgovernment.’
“ This resolution is apt to displease British public opinion,
and Senator O w e n may be accused of indulging in the old
sport o f twisting the lion’s tail. But the accusation Is un­
founded. I f we allowed our natural sentiments of affection
147311— 20090







for our kinsmen overseas to keep us silent at this time, we
should find them getting away with a lot o f booty— and our­
selves unconsciously or unthinkingly giving sanction to high­
handed and unjustified acts o f oppression and international
robbery. We can not he too strong in our condemnation, for
instance, o f the Anglo-Persian treaty, concluded secretly by
intimidation and bribery at the very moment we are asked
to give our cooperation to a society o f nations which Persia
is invited to join.
“ The case o f Egypt stands out with remarkable clearness, it
is one o f 1lie few moot questions o f the treaty <«f Versailles
which has not two sides. The British protectorate over Egypt
is an illegal action, not only violating the sovereignty of Egypt,
hut also the promises officially made by generations <>i British
statesmen. No denial of this fact is possible. Open any history
or go to British official correspondence published by the British
foreign office, and you will read the repeated assurances given
to the Egyptians and to llie other powers that Great Britain
did not intend to stay in Egypt and would not establish a proeetorate over Egypt.
.
“ The excuse for not hearing the representatives of Egypt
at the peace conference was that the question o f Egypt did not
come within the scope of the conference. If this were valid,
why did the treaty of Versailles mention Egypt? And what
right had the powers to deal with Egyptian questions at all?
But Egypt did enter within the scope of the conference,
because it was a country whose status had been changed by the
war and during the war. Technically, as well as morally, the
Egyptians had as much right to participation in the confer­
ence as the Arabs of the Hedjaz, and more right to inde­
pendence. For Egypt was only nominally under the suzerainty
o f Turkey. By her declaration of war against Turkey, the
bond of. vassalage was broken. Ipso facto Egypt was inde­
pendent.
“ But the British, who were occupying the country, pro­
c l a i m e d — without taking into their confidence the Egyptian
legislative assembly or asking the consent o f Ilm Egyptian
people— their protectorate over Egypt. In war wliat is exi»edient is justifiable. Although formally protesting against this
violation of pledges given and reiterated, the Egyptians co­
operated lovally with the British throughout the war, waiting
for the jieaee conference to deside upon the legality o f British
action. The prime minister, who consented to serve the new
regime and who continued in office throughout the war, told
me when 1 was in Cairo in 191G that lie was simply waiting
until the end c f the war to hold the British to their promises.
After the armistice Rushdi Pasha asked to he allowed to go to
London to take up the matter of the status o f Egypt with the
British. Permission was refused. A rigorous censorship was
maintained. The Egyptians were held prisoners in their own
country.
, , ,
“ Rushdi Pasha and the entire cabinet resigned. A period of
military dictatorship began. When the elected represent a ti\e<
o f the Egyptian i>eople asked for passports to proceed to Paris,
the British suddenly arrested without warrant or warning the
president o f the delegation and three o f its leaders and deported

29
them to Malta. This, led to tlie insurrection put down by ma­
chine guns and burning of villages. The British used the means
of suppressing what they called ‘ rebellion ’ which the world
roundly condemned the Germans for in Belgium. Finally, force
of Egyptian public opinion compelled the release o f the dele­
gates and the granting o f passports for Paris. But the Egyptian
delegation, after its arrival in Paris, was never heard by the
corifei once. The stipulation compelling Germany to recognize
the British protectorate was inserted in the treaty o f Versailles
in defiance o f the basic principle President Wilson had declared
' ' °V( ( 10 f°*lowed in making peace. A whole nation was robbed
sV ^ .f v e n u g .i t y and its international status changed against
its vu and, without having been heard, Egypt was Shantung
over, again.
“ \ wo,dd n°t have my readers think that I am writing without' kno\\ ledge o f the facts. A White Book has just been pub­
lished h\ the Egyptian delegation, which contains documents
setting forth the history o f the past year. The British foreign
office does not deny the authenticity of these documents. As
foi tiie men deported to Malta, I know them personally. No
foreign e l, even a Britisher, who knows Egypt can deny that
these men a ie honorable and capable and that they represent
flu' Egyptian people. The president of the delegation. Zagloul
Pasha, is one of the best loved men in Egypt, a veritable father
o f his people, Mohammed Mahmoud Pasha, a graduate of Ox­
ford, was formerly governor of the Suez Canal. The other
members o f the delegation include the Sheik o f the Arabs of
the Fayouni, the foremost landowners and lawyers in Egypt, and
the librarian of the National Eibrary. They are the cream of
the Christian element and the Greek Orthodox and Catholic ele­
ment. as well as the Mohammedan element. The Egyptians are
united, irrespective of creed, in their determination not to be
bartered from one sovereignty to another like cattle.” * * *
On November 0, 1018, Secretary of State Lansing published
the following to the world:
‘“ From the Secretary of State to the Minister of Switzerland,
in charge of German interests in the United States.
“ ‘ D e p ar t m e n t

of

S tate ,

**‘ November 5, 1918.
“ ‘ S i r : 1 have the honor to request you to transmit the fol­
lowing communication to the German Government:
“ ‘ In my note of October 23, 1018, I advised you that the
President had transmitted his correspondence with the German
authorities to the Governments with which the Government of
the United States is associated as a belligerent, with the sug­
gestion that, if tiiose Governments were disposed to effect peace
upon the terms and principles indicated, their military advisers
and the military advisers o f the United States be asked to sub­
mit to the Governments associated against Germany the neces­
sary terms of such armistice as would fully protect the interests
of the peoples involved and insure to the associated Govern­
ments the unrestricted power to safeguard and enforce the de­
tails of the peace to which the German Government had agreed
provided they deemed such an armistice possible from the mill’
tary point o f view.
147311— 20090







30

“ ; The President is now in receipt o f a memorandum of ob­
servations by the allied Governments on this correspondence,
which is as follow s:
“ '" T h e allied Governments have given careful consideration
to the correspondence which 1ms passed between the President
o f the United States and the German Government. Subject to
the qualifications which follow, they declare their willingness
to make peace with the Government o f Germany on the terms
o f peace laid down in the President’s address to Congress of
January, 1918, and the principles o f settlement enunciated in
liis subsequent addresses. They must point out, however, that
clause 2, relating to what is usually described as the freedom
o f the seas, is open to various interpretations, some of which
they could not accept. They must, therefore, reserve to themsehres complete freedom on this subject when they enter the
pence conference.
“ ‘ “ Further, in the conditions of peace laid down in his ad­
dress to Congress o f January 8, 1918, the President declared
that invaded territories must be restored as well as evacuated
and freed, and the allied Governments feel that no doubt ought
to be allowed to exist as to what this provision implies. By it
they understand that compensation will be made by Germany
for all damage done to the civilian population of the Allies and
their property by the aggression of Germany by land, by sea,
and from the air.”
“ ‘ I am Instructed by the President to sqy that he is in agree­
ment with the interpretation set forth In the last paragraph
o f the memorandum above quoted. I am further instructed by
the President to request you to notify the German Government
that Marshal Foch has been authorized by the Government of
the United States and the Allied Governments to receive prop­
erly accredited representatives of the German Government,
and to communicate to them the terms o f the armistice.
“ ‘ Accept, sir, with renewed assurances o f my highest con­
sideration.
‘“ (Signed)

K obkkt L a n sin g .’

“ Among other things the President, on January 8, 191 s, in
his address to Congress sa id :
“ ‘ We entered this war because violations of right had
occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life of
our own people impossible unless they were corrected and the
world secured once for all against their recurrence. What we
demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves.
It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in ; and par­
ticularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation
which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its
own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the
other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggres­
sion. All the peoples o f the world are in effect partners in this
interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that tmless
justice be done to others it will not be done to us. The pro­
gram o f the world’s peace, therefore, is our program; and that
program, the only possible program, as we sett it, is tins:
“ ‘ I. Oi*en covenants o f iteace, openly arrived at, after which
there shall be no private international understandings, o f any
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31

kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the
public view.
“ ‘ II. Absolute freedom o f navigation upon the seas, outside
territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the
seas may be closed In whole or in part by international action
for the enforcement of international covenants.
III. The removal, so far as possible, o f all economic bar­
riers and the establishment of an equality o f trade conditions
among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating
themselves for its maintenance.
“ ‘ IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national
armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with
domestic safety.
"
n iee5 ° l,en' inil_1(l(1d. and absolutely impartial adjust­
ment ol all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of
Hie pi in tuple iliat in determining all such questions o f sover­
eignty the interests of the populations concerned must have
equal weight with the equitable claims of the Government
whose title is to be determined.
“ ‘ \ I. The evacuation o f all Russian territory and such a
settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the
best and freest cooperation o f the other nations o f the world
in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed oppor­
tunity for the independent determination of her own jiolitical
development and national policy and assure her of a sincere
welcome into the society of free nations under institutions o f
her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also
of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The
treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months
to come will be the acid test o f their good will, of their com ­
prehension of her needs as distinguished from their own inter­
ests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.
“ ‘ VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacu­
ated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty
which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No
other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confi­
dence among the nations in the laws which thev have them­
selves set and determined for the government of their rela­
tions with one another. Without this healing act the whole
structure and validity of international law is forever impaired.
VIII. All french territory should be freed ami the invaded
portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia
in 1871 in the matter o f Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled
the peace o f the world for nearly 50 years, should he righted
in order that peace may once more he made secure in the
interest of all.
“ ‘ 1l x - £ readjustment o f the frontiers o f Italv should he
effected along clearly recognizable lines o f nationaiitv.
‘“ X The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among
the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should he
accorded the freest opportunity o f autonomous development
“ ‘ X I; Roumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated •
occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure
access to the sea; and the relations o f the several Balkan
States to one another determined by friendly counsel alon~
historically established lines o f allegiance and nationaiitv* and
147311—20090
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international guarantees o f the political anil economic iu'tle-'
pendence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan States
should he entered into.
‘•‘ X II. The Turkish portions o f the present Ottoman Empire
should be assured a secure sovereignty, hut the other nation­
alities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured
an undoubted security o f life and an absolutely unmolested
opportunity o f autonomous development, and the Dardanelles
should be "permanently opened as a free passage to the ships
and commerce o f all nations under international guarantees.
“ ‘ X III. An independent Polish State should be erected which
should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish
populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to
the sea, and whose political and economic independence and ter­
ritory integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.
« ‘ X IV A general association o f nations must be formed
under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual
guaranties of political independence and territorial integrity
to great and small States alike.’ ”
[Letter from K in g G eorg e to th e S u lta n o f E g y p t, published in L o n d o n
T im es D ece m b e r 21, 1914.]

« * * * i feel convinced that you will In' able, with the
cooperation o f your ministers and o f the protectorate of Great
Britain, to overcome all influences which are seeking to destroy
the independence o f Egypt * *
1C ab legram t o M a h m ou d P a sh a , S h oreh a m
t o llm a n P a sh a .]

H o te l, fro m

M ahm oud

« In an interview with Cairo newspapers on the 22d instant
Rushdi Pasha— who was prime minister when the Khedive was
dethroned by England and a Sultan appointed, and continued
throughout the war as prime minister o f Egypt and resigned
toward the end of May last— declared that he never consented
to the “ protectorate ” of Great Britain over Egypt, except that
it was temporary and a war measure, and that it would disap­
pear when the Allies’ victory was complete, lie asked England
to hear him and to hear the Egyptian nation duly represented
bv the Egyptian delegation. He adds that Egypt’s aid to Eng­
land during the war was immense, and that 1,200,000 Egyptians
served on the allied side.’’
147311— 20090

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