152 Cromer Must Retire [1906 



confirms what I said of it in my letter to Grey. Cromer's pretensions 

 on historic grounds rest on an original misunderstanding of a passage in 

 Abulfeda. It also shows that the Sultan's action in occupying Tabah 

 was prompted by a belief that Bramley's mission had for its object 

 to seize and fortify positions commanding Akabah. As to a design, 

 by the Sultan, against Egypt there is not a trace of it in the corre- 

 spondence, though Cromer's insistence about Tabah made people in 

 Egypt believe that some design must exist. It can hardly be claimed 

 as a diplomatic victory for Cromer, seeing that it was only gained 

 at the cost of mobilizing the British fleet and rousing the anger of the 

 whole Moslem world. Cromer has got the Order of Merit but he has 

 destroyed his own reputation; he will not survive Denshawai. 



" 22nd July {Sunday). — Mustapha Kamel came down again for 

 the day and with him Button. Kamel tells me that Robertson has 

 had it in so many words from Grey that he does not now believe 

 in the agitation in Egypt being fanatical in any religious sense, only 

 in a political sense. This can only be that the Foreign Office repudiates 

 Cromer's reading of the situation and Button declares he will retire. 

 The great thing will now be to make it patent to the world that it is 

 the Egyptian National movement that has driven him to this and to 

 get a new policy adopted favourable to Nationalism by whoever shall 

 be Cromer's successor. We talked the matter fully over and have 

 decided that in default of better, Gorst would be our best man. We 

 are, therefore, to open a campaign in the autumn against Cromer, and 

 in favour of re-establishing Constitutional Government in Egypt. In 

 the evening Mustapha returned to London." 



Though I do not put it in my diary, poor Kamel was very unwell 

 that afternoon, suffering pain and, I think, taking morphia to ease it. 

 He went up late to London in Button's company and was seriously ill 

 on their journey. Button was of great assistance to us in our plans 

 at this time, encouraging us to attack Cromer. He declared that no 

 case of hanging where the victim was innocent ever failed in England 

 to ruin the man who did it. " You may commit any injustice you 

 like," he said, " in English public life so long as you don't hang your 

 enemy, but to do that is fatal." 



" 27th July. — The last week has gone by quietly. I have not been 

 up in London but have left Mustapha Kamel to the care of Button 

 and Neville and Meynell. On Tuesday the Panislamic Society in 

 London gave him a banquet, and on Wednesday he delivered himself 

 of a speech at a luncheon party, which has been reported in the 

 ' Tribune ' and other London papers, the ' Manchester Guardian ' hav- 

 ing become strangely silent. 



" 28th July. — The Denshawai Blue Book is out. Though all the 

 arts of evasion are tried in it, even to the complete suppression of 



