indeed the duty, to insist upon being given a free, hand for the execution of our programme. Diplomatic intrigue is no longer the fashion in Cairo, nor is it now possible for other countries to utilize the so-called international status of Egypt as a means of putting pressure on the British Government. Last, but not least, the occupation of the Valley of the Nile is no longer a stumbling-block in the way of the establishment of intimate and reciprocal friendship between England and France, and it may even be said that the recent adjustment of long-standing grievances in regard to that country has of itself tended to bring the two nations closer together. Egypt has, then, ceased to be a point of weakness to the Empire and a source of danger to the world, while the material progress of the country, made under circumstances often very unfavourable, and the reconquest of Khartoum and the lost provinces of the Soudan, are facts which may afford legitimate gratification to all sections of the British race.
What, then, have been the causes of this rapid and complete transformation both in the internal and external situation of Egypt? By what means has a problem which seemed at the outset fraught with innumerable difficulties, and which contained all the elements of an acute international quarrel, been honourably and unobtrusively solved within the space of a few years? These are questions of vital import to those whose concern is the welfare of the Empire.
First and foremost, our work in Egypt has been successful because for once we have not only put the right man in the right place, but have left him there. 'Egypt is the gift of the river,' said Herodotus more than 2,000 years ago, and, without exaggeration, it might be said that the Egypt of to-day is the gift of Lord Cromer. His has been the master-hand which has brought the country out of a condition of bankruptcy into a position of financial prosperity which may well be the envy of many larger and richer communities, and which has changed anarchy and rebellion into the rule
