1894] Breivster Bey's Narrative 131 



they travelled back together amicably to Assouan ; but that there Kitch- 

 ener, who seems in the meantime to have telegraphed to Cairo, repre- 

 sented to His Highness that before leaving Upper Egypt he should 

 issue an order declaring his satisfaction with the frontier force ; that 

 the Khedive had demurred to this, and on being further pressed His 

 Highness had said, 'You mean, then, to make it a political matter? I 

 consider this is a question within my limits to decide.' Whereupon 

 Kitchener replied, ' I am not sure what Your Highness' limits are.' 

 What more happened Brewster does not know. But he says that, 

 knowing Kitchener well and knowing the Khedive, he would infinitely 

 sooner take the latter's word than the former's. I asked him what 

 sort of man Kitchener was, and he told me he was of no particular 

 ability, and that he was especially ignorant, for a man who had seen 

 so much employment here, of native character and native ideas. At 

 Suakim he had committed the grossest blunders in this way. Kitch- 

 ener's original quarrel with Maher (this was told me by Kennedy) was 

 about a large sum of secret service money, as to which Kitchener re- 

 fused — Maher being Under Secretary at the War Office — to give any 

 account. This was the beginning of the trouble, as far as Kitchener 

 was concerned. 



" Brewster spoke bitterly of the French and Russian Agents, who 

 had turned against Abbas in this difficulty, as they had done the year 

 before. With regard to Constantinople, he also does not trust the 

 Sultan, ' who will do whatever the English Government tells him.' As 

 for Mukhtar, he had been against Abbas all through, and was now 

 playing entirely into Cromer's hands. ' He has not forgotten,' he said, 

 ' the Khedive's telegram to Constantinople at the beginning of his reign, 

 when he asked who was the Sultan's representative here in Egypt, 

 himself or Mukhtar? ' Brewster considers the situation a very danger- 

 ous one for Abbas — in which I agree with him. ' If he goes,' he said 

 emphatically, ' I shall not stay a day longer in Egypt.' Nevertheless, 

 the Khedive is full of courage, and Brewster promised to back up my 

 advice about the note of explanation addressed to our Government. 

 He thinks I can do no good by explaining matters to the English Press. 

 A very honest fellow is Brewster, of a kind one would wish to be 

 served by, but does not often meet. 



" lyth Feb. — I have written a long private letter to the Editor of the 

 ' Daily News ' for his instruction, not for publication, explaining the 

 true state of affairs here. 



' igth Feb. — Lady Dunmore, who was here with her daughters a 

 few days ago, gave us a thrilling account of her life and sufferings in 

 Kashmir, where they were taken, she being an invalid, to spend two 

 summers, by her husband, but after all it seems to have done her good, 

 and the girls were enthusiastic about it. She told me to-day a curious 



