1890] Village Protests on Drink 35 



villages in connection with the new railway), and he expressed his 

 general sympathy and desire to help in stopping the spread of drink 

 in Egypt, but said it was a large question, and a question of law; he 

 would see Riaz (the Prime Minister), and find out how the law was; 

 Riaz was very hostile to the Greeks, and so would be likely to do what 

 he could. He would let me know the result, and then, if there was a 

 possibility, the inhabitants of Merj and the other villages should pro- 

 test, and he would do all in his power to help them. 



" 6th April. — Called again on Baring to show him the petition against 

 the drink shops. It had been signed by seventy-three of the principal 

 Sheykhs and notables of Merj, Kafr el Jamus, Kafr el Shorafa, and 

 Birket el Haj, also by Salaam Abu Shedid and Hassan Abu Tawil, 

 Sheykhs from the Howeytat and Aiaideh tribes. He seemed pleased 

 with it, and I left him a translation, and we discussed the question 

 together and with Tigrane Pasha, who had come in and whom Baring 

 sent off at once with the original to Riaz. Tigrane [he was the 

 Armenian Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs] declared that the case 

 could be dealt with without infringing upon National rights. I argued 

 strongly against its being treated fiscally, but rather as a matter of 

 police and public morals. In this Tigrane agreed with me, and Baring 

 said he would do all in his power to stop the spread of the drink shops, 

 if according to the ruling of the International Courts, and if not, he 

 would submit a modification of the law to the Powers. We discussed 

 also several other cases, especially that of the Government salt tax, an 

 imposition which pressed hardly upon the people, and that of certain 

 Bedouins imprisoned at Ghizeh. He showed himself anxious to in- 

 tervene in all these matters, sent for the persons responsible, and 

 promised to see into the cases. A good morning's work." 



The above will give some idea of the practical way in which Lord 

 Cromer did the work of administration at Cairo, and of the kind of 

 questions I was able to bring before him. That he had the reformation 

 of abuses at that date, 1890, the period of his first and best practical 

 energies, much at heart, is certain, nor did I then suspect him of 

 working, as he did so flagrantly later, less for the good of Egypt than 

 in English political and financial interests. It is, however, necessary 

 to remark that, in spite of his promises of assistance and the undoubted 

 good faith of Riaz Pasha on the drink question, nothing at all was 

 ever done to protect these villages from the Greek intruders, who ply 

 their trade in them unchecked to the present day. Their case was as 

 strong a one as could well have been brought forward, for it was one 

 where the demand for alcohol needed to be created in the midst of a 

 totally abstaining population, and it worked the ill results we foresaw. 

 The drink shops were put under regulations good enough in their way, 

 but the sale was not suppressed, and like many another regulation in 



