From The Spectator, 26 December 1914:
Egypt, as the Royal Proclamation in effect, if not in word, shows, has passed into the British Empire. She is as much a part of it as any of the Feudatory States of India. Technically we have not annexed Egypt, nor do we desire to do so, since we are able to show a consideration for Mohammedan feeling which we are very glad to show, and for which Mohammedans will be grateful. In the case of a country like India, where things are on a gigantic scale and where there is a great mixture of creeds and races, direct British rule may very often be essential to efficient government.
Lord Cromer was very wise when he told us that the thing for which Oriental peoples are most grateful is low taxation. They can and will appreciate that when they appreciate nothing else. That we shall keep our hands out of their pockets as far as British interests are concerned is obvious ; but we must go further, and keep our hands out of their pockets as far as possible even when our intentions are of the very best, and when it may be mathematically provable that the taxed man will gain double or treble for all the taxes he pays. We must remember that the Oriental peasant is very hard to convince in matters of this kind. He thinks much more about the sums he is forced to pay out to a Government than of what he gets back from it. That which ho gets he regards as a piece of good fortune which has nothing to do with the odious tax-collector. Providence may have given him better irrigation, better roads, and a convenient railway, but he will stare in your face and disbelieve you if you tell him that all these benefits come from the great demands which the tax-collectors are making on him. We must keep down taxation in Egypt, even if by doing so we have to deprive the Egyptian population of many benefits that they could otherwise receive with great rapidity. Let us do what we can out of the surplus of existing taxes, but let the essential rule be—No fresh taxation. If that is our guiding principle we shall get, we will not say blessings, but at any rate much fewer curses.
Comments