124 The Khedive and Cromer L x ^94 



phore ' about the two members of the Council having been to Lord 

 Cromer, the Sheykh had gone to Reverseaux, French Minister Resident 

 at Cairo. I had insisted upon its being contradicted, or otherwise ' he 

 would go over to the English.' This Reverseaux had repeated to him, 

 the Khedive — and he had given Bekri a strong piece of his mind 

 about his lack of patriotism. I told the Khedive that I regretted the 

 disagreement, as I had had a high opinion of Sheykh el Bekri's value 

 both for intelligence and courage. But he said he himself was disap- 

 pointed in him, and things were so. 



"Of Lord Cromer he spoke with the same sort of boyish fun as 

 last year. ' When Lord Cromer came back from England,' he said, 

 ' he began to talk to me once more about the details of Government, 

 but I reminded him that last time we had talked of these things it was 

 I who wanted to go into details, and he who found that " it was not 

 my business to trouble myself about them." Since then we only talk 

 about the rain and the fine weather. He comes to see me, but we never 

 talk politics.' He asked me whether I had been to see Cromer, and I 

 told him ' No,' as I did not think he had behaved well to His Highness, 

 and I was unwilling, being opposed to him, to frequent his house. 

 This pleased him very much. He came with me to the door, and on 

 going out I asked him whether I might publish what he had told me, 

 and he said ' Certainly — these are the facts and my opinion, and there 

 is no reason why they should not be made known.' I am immensely 

 impressed with the keenness of his intelligence, and his ready power of 

 expressing himself, also with his frankness and directness. There was 

 no beating at all about the bush, nor use of those vague generalities 

 so common with Eastern statesmen. 



" The same day I went to the Sheykh el Bekri, who gave me his 

 own account of what had happened, and on 9th January to Tigrane, 

 who told me more details of the Khedive's reception at Constantinople. 

 It had been most cordial, he said. He was himself in the Khedive's 

 suite on the occasion, as he had been many years before with Ismail, and 

 the ceremonial was greater this time, greater than for Mohammed Ali 

 or any of the Viceroys. The Sultan saw Abbas frequently alone. He 

 does not think they talked politics except perhaps, the first time, all 

 that was done by Mukhtar. I asked him if he had any doubt of the 

 Sultan's support if things came to a pinch. He said he had not, the 

 only thing that could tempt the Sultan to intervene against Abbas would 

 be if it were proposed to turn Egypt into a Vilayet of the Empire, but 

 this the Powers would never consent to. His apprehension was not 

 from that side ; what he fears is that perhaps the British Government 

 may intervene against the Ministry and appoint men of their own choice 

 without reference to the Khedive. We talked also about the Legisla- 

 tive Council and its discussion of the Budget, and he told me amongst 



