The Egyptian Problem

xiv A BABBEN PEBIOD OF DBIFT 255
are not termed Protectorates, and that their relations to the paramount Power are quite adequately governed by formal treaties of alliance, some of them more than a century old. „ No ruling prince is prouder of his connection with the British Empire than the great Mahomedan ruler of Hyderabad, but he addresses the King-Emperor as " my exalted ally." Might not the much looser ties contemplated between Egypt and the British Empire be made equally secure and far more acceptable to the Egyptian people by &> Treaty of Alliance in lieu of a Protectorate or in definition of its purpose ?
How far the British Government still was from entertaining any idea of a compromise on such lines was made manifest as soon as Lord Allenby returned on November 10th from leave. He had been away for two months, and though nobody could grudge him his first holiday after the strenuous years of war in which he had played so brilliant a part, it was high time he returned. Political agitation had once more reached a degree of violence which the Egyptian Prime Minister no longer pretended even to control. In Lord Allenby Js absence there was no one at the Residency to speak with authority, nor was there yet any sign of a more definite British policy to which anyone could have spoken. Fortunately, he was too much of a soldier to return to his post without jf^
having his marching orders in his pocket. The very day after the rather futile attempt to celebrate the first " anniversary of Egyptian independence " Lord Allenby tried to recall Egypt from the world of illusions by delivering to the Egyptian Government the declaration of British policy which he had at last extracted from His Majesty's Ministers, and he took care that it should reach the Egyptian people in the form in which he delivered it to their Government by communicating it at the same time to the Press.
The text deserves to be quoted in full as it was the first explicit announcement to the people of Egypt of Great Britain's intentions with regard to the future of theiron of the British rajof the State bound down to the functions of a ntrictly constitutional ruler. .If it were