Page:The empire and the century.djvu/805

 The first few years of the Occupation were not calculated to dissipate the forebodings with which Great Britain had entered upon her task. The abandonment of the Soudan to dervish tyranny, with the crowning disaster of the fall of Khartoum and the sacrifice of its brave defender, General Gordon, the innumerable embarrassments, diplomatic and administrative, arising out of the local situation in Egypt, were not circumstances upon which a patriotic Englishman cared to dwell. Loss of valuable lives, loss of money, loss of prestige, seemed at one moment to be all that we should derive from the situation, and it is hardly surprising that the very name of Egypt was for some years anathema equally to the politician and to the man in the street. Not only did the country constitute a very weak spot in our diplomatic armour, where we could easily be attacked by any ill-disposed Power, but our Occupation appeared to be an absolute bar to the maintenance of cordial relations with our nearest neighbour across the Channel. In view of these considerations, British statesmen were sincerely desirous to bring our intervention in Egyptian affairs to an early close, and several attempts were made in that direction during the first few years after 1888. Circumstances were, however, stronger than policies, and all such efforts were doomed to failure.

It would be difficult to imagine a more complete contrast to the state of affairs as it then existed than is presented by the Egypt of to-day. In the space of some twenty odd years—a brief period in a human life, and hardly appreciable in the life of a nation—the external position of Egypt and her relations to the British Empire have undergone as complete a revolution as the internal condition of the country and its population. Europe has recognised that the task upon which England so unwillingly entered must not be impeded or thwarted by the prospect of a premature evacuation, and that so long as we are responsible for the good government of the country, we have the right, and