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Full text of "The Egyptian Problem"

to grudge the time spent away from the more loisure( atmosphere of departmental headquarters and the gnreatei social attractions of the capital.     Less careful arid,   less patient vigilance was brought to bear on subordinate Egyptian officials, wretchedly ill-paid, who   when   Ief1 too much to themselves were prone to relapse into t>lie olc ways   of   Oriental   officialdom.   Though   the   da/ys   oi financial stringency were over, the Finance Department could not apparently realise that it is useless to ^preach honesty to men to whom you  deny a living wage-       At the same time, both under  Sir Eldon Gorst and     3Lord Kitchener it was sometimes deemed expedient to   turn an indulgent eye on malpractices in high places,    and there is nothing that the Egyptian is more quick to  note. The people were not only less closely in touch with IBritish officials, but no longer ventured or were encouraged, to come forward and air their grievances.   The impor'fcsttion of the motor and the motor cycle widened the breach. Officials covered greater distances, but saw less and heard far less, for as they hurried round their districts   "there was no longer the same easy access to them,  as In   the old days when they rode leisurely through the fields  and along the canal banks on horseback or on the humble Egyptian donkey, and camped for the night and   often for days together outside the village.
Many Englishmen did their best to keep up tho   old
practices and the old traditions, but the newcomers  "were
numerous, and the more the number of British officials
increased, the greater was naturally the likelihood of some
amongst them being men inclined by temperament}   to
ride roughshod over the susceptibilities of others,    a,nd
especially when the others belonged to a different   x*a>ce.
I Imagination is not the quality usually most conspicuous
I in Englishmen, and   without it there  can seldom    beearned to regard them as their friends. Then, as the tremendous pressure of work subsided, and the original pioneers passed off the stage, the system of personal co-operation was            als<> the development of light railways and the introduc