THE EGYPTIAN OFFICER 67 



to the sanitary arrangements of the town — a native 

 town, too. Another will carry on the secretarial work 

 of the office of a province as large as England. One, 

 almost a boy, will be sent to a frontier station, cut off 

 by more than a month's journey from the outside 

 world, and, in the words of a Governor whose report 

 I quote, " carry on negotiations the nicety of which 

 would have taxed the powers of a capable British 

 officer." Another on a distant post set in the midst 

 of a savage people, wholly uncertain as to the in- 

 tentions of the Government towards them, will hold 

 his own with dignity and without friction. I could 

 multiply my examples ad inftnifmn. I marvel as I 

 look around me now and think of the empire-making 

 work, so little appreciated, that they do. 



But as to a picture in the Academy there is to this 

 another side not fair to see. 



The opportunities for peculation, taking bribes, and, 

 worst of all; robbing those beneath them, are many. 

 Say, 100 naked savages have to be paid for ten days' 

 work ; a day's pay deducted from each will not be 

 noticed by them, but will be an appreciable sum. In 

 the issue of a month's rations to a Company there will 

 needs be a surplus, the sale of which will keep a 

 servant and even a horse. Some, alas, fall I 



The watching necessary has rendered some men 

 chronically suspicious, so much so that there is the 

 case of one ofBcer who at the end of seven years, the 

 first four of which had been brilliant, had become so 

 openly suspicious that he had to be requested to leave 

 the country. 



