94 A Visit to Riaz Pasha [ J 893 



but says he could not make them understand him, as Boyle and he 

 talked Turkish, but most probably they would not have anything to do 

 with him, so he came on to me. 



" He came again 4th March, and I gave him £10 and advised him to 

 go back to Syria. 



" 6th March. — Abderrahman Ismail came and reminded me of what 

 I had advised about the Khedive declaring himself before Parliament 

 met. ' You see,' he said, ' we have taken your advice.' So it is just 

 possible that my words may have had some influence in bringing the 

 crisis on, only I wish they had consulted me as to the way of doing so. 

 I should not have advised this sudden change of Ministers. But per- 

 haps it is best as it is. It was not Ahmed Shukri, but Mohammed 

 Shukri, who, he told me, was working with Riaz. He talked now in 

 the highest spirits of all that was happening. I told him I thought it 

 possible negotiations for evacuation might be begun before the end of 

 the year. 



" yth March. — To-day I went to see Riaz Pasha. To my astonish- 

 ment he had written me a most amiable note, asking to see me and 

 signing himself Voire bien devoue. So I called at three at his private 

 house in the Helmiyeh quarter, near the citadel, I suppose the quarter 

 where his old Jew father lived. He received me with the greatest 

 cordiality, a little, wizened, gray old man, with a nervous, twitching 

 face (once Abbas I's dancing boy!) and poured me out his griefs. He 

 began with a long apology for his conduct in past times and of how he 

 would have saved the country if it had not been for Arabi's pushing 

 on too quickly. I did not care to argue that point, as I knew it would 

 take time, and he is sorry enough now for having got the English into 

 the country. He is very angry with Cromer for having humbugged 

 him when he was last in office about evacuation, and on my showing 

 him what Labouchere had written me about Rosebery's intention never 

 to evacuate, he threw up his hands in real passion. 



" We discussed the necessity of action through the General Assembly, 

 and he quite agreed. But he strikes me as being rather old and infirm, 

 and I doubt if he will hurry on fast enough. Unless they act here, 

 while our Parliament is sitting, they will lose their pains. I talked to 

 him also about getting the Sultan to agree to the neutralization of 

 Egypt in connection with our withdrawal, and he thought it could be 

 managed if the word neutralization was not used to the Sultan. He 

 thought also they might come to an agreement to make over the town 

 of Suez permanently to England, but he begged me not to quote him, 

 also he promised to draw up a programme of reforms. About the 

 Khedive's denial that he had promised to follozv English advice he did 

 not feel sure, but said that something he thought had already been 

 written about it. He is very Oriental and very vague, but there is 



