1904] The Entente with France 85 



this and has told him that he must choose between being a Khedive 

 and being a tradesman, in which Cromer is in the right. All the 

 family of iMohammed Ali have been keen traders and Abbas cares 

 for nothing now, Abdu says, but money making. 



" 2^rd Jan. — The reason of Gorst's return to Europe is explained. 

 He went to try and get the French Government to agree to an aboli- 

 tion of the Caisse de la Dette, and has been at Paris seeing M. 

 Delcasse with that object. I have written to the Editor of the ' Man- 

 chester Guardian ' about it, explaining how very necessary it is to 

 preserve the Caisse de la Dette as a check upon financial extrava- 

 gance here. What our people specially want just now is liberty to 

 spend all the Egyptian money they can get on the Soudan, which 

 is an English, not an Egyptian interest. There is a scheme of railway 

 making between Souakim and Gerber, and also between Khartoum and 

 Abyssinia, the Cape to Cairo line, and there is an ultimate plan of 

 great irrigation reservoirs to supply Manchester with Soudanese cotton. 

 It is only the Caisse de la Dette which stands in the way of Egypt's 

 being made the milch cow of our African Empire. I hear, however, 

 that the French Government has refused to consent to the aboli- 

 tion." 



[N.B. These were the first negotiations with the French Govern- 

 ment, which resulted some months later in the Agreement known 

 as the Entente Cordiale, whereby France gave England a completely 

 free hand in Egypt in return for a free hand given her in Morocco.] 



" 4th Feb. — My letter to the ' Manchester Guardian ' is published, 

 and comes in pretty opportunely, though I understand the French 

 Government has definitely refused to waive its rights on the Caisse 

 de la Dette. It appears that there was really a proposal into which 

 Gorst entered of some gigantic operation in the Soudan, a con- 

 cession of Government lands on a vast scale for twenty millions to 

 Cassel, with irrigation works, and a Government guarantee which 

 required the consent of the Caisse ; also it was said an attempt was 

 made to abolish the Caisse altogether, a huge scheme of developing 

 the Soudan at the expense of Egypt. Fortunately this has been put 

 a stop to'by the French Government, and the whole thing has fallen 

 into the water. The Khedive was certainly mixed up in it, and 

 from what I can understand Cromer did not altogether approve. 

 Mohammed Abdu says that Gorst has been playing into the Khedive's 

 hands of late financially, and there is talk of his leaving the Egyptian 

 service. 



"nth Feb. — The Russo-Japanese War has begun, and some 

 Russian ironclads have been sunk in Port Arthur. 



' There is a split between George Wyndham and Redmond over 

 the Catholic University. As far as my politics are concerned I should 



