1894]' A New Coup d'Etat 125 



other things that both Havas and Reuter's Telegraph Agencies get 

 £1,000 a year each from the Egyptian Government. 



" In a letter I wrote at this time to Sir William Harcourt, I gave 

 him an account of how things were going in Egypt. ' The ideas of the 

 day,' I wrote, ' are Liberal and modern. The action of the Legislative 

 Council (in discussing the Budget) is most useful, but everything that 

 is done here is turned to the native disadvantage by the English officials, 

 who are angry at having lost much of their power since last year. It 

 is impossible that the country could be in a more favourable state for 

 evacuation, but I suppose you will not do it.' And so in truth it was, 

 it needed a new quarrel and a new crisis at Cairo to prevent what these 

 considered the danger of its taking place. Lady Gregory, writing to 

 me on the 16th of January, said: ' From what I hear the Government 

 in England are most anxious to get out of Egypt, and might make a 

 volte face at any moment.' This was the danger Cromer and the 

 English officials at Cairo foresaw. Gladstone might at any moment 

 take the bit between his teeth and keep his word. It will here be seen 

 how the crisis was engineered, and Cromer got his way." 



I was absent from Cairo on a desert tour when the clash between 

 Cromer and the Khedive took place. That a new coup d' etat was in 

 contemplation by the former had already begun to be rumoured is 

 shown by an entry in my journal of January 21. : ' Mohammed Abdu 

 and Mohammed Moelhi called. Moelhi declares that Riaz' Ministry 

 will not last, that Cromer and Reverseaux have come together, and 

 that they mean to appoint Nubar in his place. He thinks the Khedive 

 will consent to this. Tigrane is on bad terms with Nubar and will not 

 join. It will be practically a renewal of the Dual Control. I think 

 there is probably something in this, though I doubt the Khedive's con- 

 senting." Two days later, 23rd January, we started on our journey, 

 one of those purely desert journeys on camels in the Western Desert, 

 where one is absolutely cut off from all communication with the civi- 

 lized world, as much so as if one were in a different planet, nor did 

 we return till the 4th of February. It was a pleasant and interesting 

 tour among the then isolated monasteries of the Natron Valley, and 

 in the great uninhabited wilderness beyond it. It was Judith's first 

 experience of a long camel ride, and we had with us Everard Fielding 

 who was spending the winter in Egypt, and the weather was beautiful, 

 and all went well, but this is not the place for these out of the world 

 adventures, and I reserve my description of it for another occasion. 

 My first informant about what had happened was my friend Osman 

 Bey Ghaleb who looked in the following day, and gave the exciting 

 news of what is known in official Egyptian history as " The Frontier 

 Incident." 



To make this understandable it must be explained that Kitchener, 



