Modernization and the Growth of Nationalism 119
'The real object (of the Nationalists) is a return to the old system
of class-privilege, oppression, and corruption'.1
In choosing a successor to Sk Eldon Gorst the British govern-
ment made one of those sharp reversals of policy which are not un-
common when a previous policy has proved unsuccessful. After
consulting Lord Cromer, whose scepticism of the Egyptian
capacity for self-government had hardened in view of the events
which had followed his retirement, it appointed that formidable
soldier Lord Kitchener, who regarded Western political institu-
tions as an unqualified danger to Oriental peoples* 'Party spirit',
he once said, 'is to them like strong drink to uncivilized African
natives. . . . The future development of the vast mass of the in-
habitants depends upon improved conditions of agriculture which,
with educational progress, are the more essential steps towards the
material and moral advance of the people.' He declared in his
Annual Report for 1912 his strong disapproval of any encourage-
ment of the 'so-called political classes', and in his Organic Law of
1913 he sought to re-organize the existing legislative bodies so as to
secure adequate representation for the agricultural population:
'Noisy extremists and outside political influences must be elimin-
ated if the Assembly is really to represent the hardworking, un-
heard masses of the people.' At the same time the administration
provided additional irrigation-water for agriculture by raising the
height of the Aswan Dam, and sought to protect the small pro-
prietor from the seizure of his holding for debt through the Five
Feddan Law. The prestige attaching to Kitchener's past career, and
the strength of his personality did restore a measure of political
tranquillity, and his vigorously prosecuted agricultural policy en-
gendered prosperity and confidence. Nevertheless the Legislative
Assembly, as elected after the passing of the new Organic Law,
continued its factious obstruction. A clash between the administra-
tion and Zaghlul who, after losing his ministerial office as a result
of his incurring the enmity of the Khedive, had become leader of
the Nationalist opposition with a solid group of followers, was
averted only by the outbreak of the First World War. Moreover,
the administration had deteriorated in quality owing to Kitchener's
1 J. Alexander, The Truth AboutEgypt (1911), 209, 92; this work is an excellent
example of contemporary 'Egyptophobia*. As late as 1934 Lord Lloyd could
write, 'From 1889 to 1922 our foremost concern had been to secure the humane
and stable administration of the affairs of the Egyptian masses.* (Egypt since
Cromer, II, 354; the italics are mine.)