Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/26

12 like a plague of locusts, and eat out the substance of the land. No wonder that intelligent Egyptians are indignant." This testimony might be received with some abatement, because General Stone had been for years the Chief of Staff to the Khedive, and his sympathies were strongly with the Egyptians. But similar language was used by the American Consul and by all the American residents with whom I conversed. They felt that this virtual appropriation of the government by foreign Controllers, was a gross abuse of trust; that it was a "spoiling of the Egyptians," which they could only regard with disgust and indignation.

Certainly it was a great injustice; but let the blame fall where it belongs. The odium has been thrown upon England, when a careful inquiry shows that it was not the English but the French who took the lion's share of the spoils. Not long since a paper was presented to the House of Commons, giving an accurate report of the number of British subjects in the service of Egypt, which, to the surprise of the public, showed that there were three or four times as many Frenchmen as Englishmen. Among the foreign officials it was found also that there was a large number of Italians, besides a liberal sprinkling of Germans, Roumanians, Greeks, and Syrians.

While the French and English took the financial positions, the Turks took the high places in the army. One cannot understand Egyptian politics without recognizing the fact that Arabs are not Turks; indeed no two peoples regard each other with more intense dislike. They may unite to fight against the infidel; but left to themselves, they would fight with each other, as they did in the days of Mehemet Ali. And yet as Egypt is subject to Turkey, all the best places in its army have been held by aliens, whom the Egyptians at once hate and despise. The