Cairo and the English in Egypt

We arrived in Cairo, the “Grand,” the “Beautiful,” the” Blessed,” as it is often called, in the evening, and awoke next morning to look out on green trees and crowded streets. Busy people in every style of dress and hue of color were hurrying by. They were mostly Egyptians, Turks, and English, but besides these there were few or many from every known quarter of the globe. The count says, taken together, Cairo has about four hundred thousand inhabitants. Just how they take the count I do not know, when the majority of the people seem to live on the streets.

Egypt is a Turkish province, and Cairo is its capital. And that I might have an intelligent idea of governmental proceedings, I took the trouble to make a list of the officials and the offices they fill.

The emperor is an absolute despot, and is called “sultan” or “Grand Seignior.” He lives at Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish empire.
The khedive is the king or viceroy.
A sheik is the chief of a tribe, an elder, a learned man; a title of reverence.
Sheik ul Islam is the chief mufti, or interpreter of the law, at Constantinople.
The prime minister is called “grand vizir.”
The court of the sultan is called the Porte, the Sublime Porte, from the name of a door to the imperial palace.

Governors of provinces are called “pashas,” or “bashaws,” and are of three different ranks, denoted by the number of horse-tails on their standards.
The seraglio (se-ral’yo) is an assemblage of palaces in Constantinople inhabited by the sultan and his court.
Harem, “home or domestic fireside.” Haram, “sacred inclosure.”

Of the young Khedive of Egypt, Abbas Pasha, there is nothing to say. He has done nothing, he has had nothing to do, but to be born. The Koran dictates his religion; the sultan dictates his policy; the English control his army, bank his money, and have a bond and mortgage on his real estate; and now, poor fellow, the kingdoms of the earth are much afraid he may not do something in the best interests of his country!

Up to the time of the English occupation, Egypt belonged to the Turkish empire, with the seat of government in Constantinople. It does now, nominally, but in reality it belongs to the British empire, with the seat of government in London.

To-day Egypt is really “no man’s country.” The sultan will not let go, and England tightens her grasp, and poor Egypt is starved and strangled into a condition of pitiable helplessness. England holds the country in bond, and demands her “pound of flesh,” and can take it, for she took the blood first!

Egypt owed, at one time, a debt of more than eighty million pounds. It was in five or more loans, and on every dollar of it, when the interest budget was all made up, she paid twelve per cent., and on some of the railroad loans very much more. The Suez Canal was sacrificed long ago to temporarily bridge this chasm of obligation. Then new troubles arose, and English gunboats bombarded Alexandria and took possession of the whole of Lower Egypt, and England holds it now as security for her twelve per cent. interest.

The land-tax amounts to nearly one hail of the revenue of the country. Besides this there is a personal tax or poll-tax of just how much I do not know. I once saw a statement that it was twenty-five cents each. Soon after, I saw another statement that it was four pounds. The latter is the most probable when we consider the amount of interest the natives must each year pay.

The poor peasantry are hopelessly poor, and are struggling under this unrighteous taxation for improvements that do not improve their lot in the least, and will not for generations to come. They could not be worse off and live. They can now but barely keep soul and body together.

The English soldier, in his red coat, his rakish cap tilted on one side, and his hair plastered down with pomatum, is everywhere present. He struts the streets and swaggers at the citadel, and England “keeps what she has got,” and “rustles for the rest.”

That the native Egyptian smarts under English supremacy is a fact not easily disguised. He does not enjoy the English rule and being held in times of peace and quiet as though in a state of siege.

The Egyptians are not a warlike nation. They have won some grand victories in times past, it is true, but they are naturally a peace-loving people, and easily intimidated by those who have overcome them. I personally saw an example of this one day. A large number of tourists were returning to Cairo from an excursion in the country, and the boys, at different places along the way, offered for sale small objects of antiquity. I cannot say how genuine they were. One young fellow pushed his business a little too far to be agreeable to a burly looking English chap, and the latter bent over his horse and gave the boy a full blow with a cane that was no flirtatious stick, but came nearer being a veritable club. The boy fairly doubled with pain, but not a look or a word. Such things do not speak well for the gaining of Egyptian independence; but we must remember that the military is a mighty conciliator. A country that has been beaten in battle, and is too poor to own itself, is not likely soon to renew the struggle, unless supported by other nations.

It is all very well to talk of “European civilization,” “modern improvement,” “the safety of travelers”; some travelers ought not to be safe in Egypt or any other country. There is no mention made of the fact that Englishmen are filling nearly all the fat places in the army, the government, and commerce. I forgot to add that “Egypt under English rule is breathing a healthier atmosphere.” The truth is, from the crowding in of English soldiery, English officers, and English office-seekers, Egypt can scarcely find room to breathe at all. Cuba paid to Spain six million dollars yearly for a standing army to keep her in bondage. I do not know what Egypt pays.

The English came to Egypt first with their Prayer-book, then they came with their shot-gun. The shot-gun has the call now, and the poor Egyptians sigh amid the ruins of their past greatness, and must wait even for their pin-money until the English have fingered it and taken out England’s interest; then the Egyptians can have all the rest. It takes a great deal of money to pay twelve per cent. interest on a large national debt.

England, just now, is resting, and waiting to be insulted, and wishing for some one to “step on the tail of me coat,” so that she may be able to see her opportunity in some of the gold-fields of Africa unblessed with “English civilization.”

The Roman empire conquered and oppressed weak nations until the Roman eagle had a perch in nearly every quarter of the then known world. What of the Roman empire now? History teaches more than it tells.

From Oriental Days
by Lucia A. Palmer, 1897