1895] English and Egyptian Officers 199 



Berber population is lean and hungry. He was eager to know about 

 the Armenian question, and about the condition of India, and I ex- 

 plained both to him. He is a very intelligent, worthy man, of the 

 kind most required. He admitted freely the personal liberty now 

 enjoyed and the liberty of the press, but complained bitterly of there 

 being no self-government, no constitution. I agree with him on all 

 points, except that of the material poverty. He is opposed to 'the 

 reservoirs, but in favour of an advance on the Soudan, at least to 

 Dongola. My own impression is that it would have been best in 

 1885 to have made Assouan the boundary of Egypt, ins'tead of Wady 

 Haifa. It is a much stronger frontier and far less costly. The only 

 reason for an advance now is to forestall a European one, either Italian 

 or French. 



" We stopped for the night at Korosko, and I went ashore with the 

 Commandant, Ibrahim Bey Fathy, a fine looking fellah soldier, who 

 showed us round 'the barracks by starlight. They are making surveys 

 for a railway to Murad, and Broadwood tells me they intend, when- 

 ever the advance to Khartoum is made, to take that route. But there 

 is nothing in contemplation at present. The English officers are good 

 fellows, and are very polite and amiable 'to their Egyptian brother 

 officers ; but it is easy to see that there is no real intimacy or knowledge 

 of each other's thoughts. Broadwood complains of this ; and I should 

 think that, if it came to a pinch, the Egyptian officers could not be im- 

 plicitly relied on. I fancy they all resent the superior commands being 

 English. They do not mess with the English officers, and live much 

 apart. This is no doubt partly because the English know very little 

 Arabic. Ibrahim Bey spoke excellent English, and dined with us on 

 board. There are two young fellows, Englishmen of the Royal En- 

 gineers, who have been sent out here to make the railroad to Murad, 

 excellent ingenuous youths of perhaps 'twenty-three or twenty-four, 

 to whom it is great fun and solid advancement, as they are given the 

 rank of majors in the Egyptian army. This is a sample of what leads 

 to discontent among the native officers, for the work is an absolutely 

 simple one, and could be performed by any of their own engineers. 

 Yet 'these young Englishmen have it. Again, the command of the cav- 

 alry at Haifa is left during the summer months to a native officer, but 

 as soon as the winter begins, when there are manoeuvres and parades 

 of the kind soldiers love, young Broadwood comes to take his place. 

 My friend the doctor is eloquent on these things, and I have no doubt 

 reflects the general sentiment. 



" 8th Nov. — Passed the battlefields at • . . . and Toski, the former 

 fought with an advanced body of the Dervishes, the latter with the 

 main body under Wad el Nejumi. The English officers gave me an 

 account of the two actions. By their showing, it was little more than 



