I thought it simpler and better to let Duclerc have a copy of your despatch, as you had no objection to my doing so. He has not yet given any sign of life since he received it.
The argument that the Financial Adviser will have only a small position in Egypt, or at all events a less important position than the Controllers, cuts both ways here. Duclerc's line is to say that we are making a distinction without any real difference: that in practice the adviser will have all and more than all the powers of the Controllers; and that thus virtually France is to be deprived of her share in the Control without receiving, even nominally, any compensation.
A complaint of a very different kind is made by the 'Haute Finance.' They say that the only real compensation which could be given to France, if she is to be ousted from the Control, would be the establishment, under the auspices and responsibility of England, of such a strong practical supervision of the Egyptian Administration as would make the regular payment of the Debt and the maintenance of the commercial and other interests of foreigners secure. They pretend that the proposed establishment of the Financial Adviser is in form injurious to the dignity of France, while in substance it does not sufficiently provide for the control by any one of the Egyptian Government. These seem to be the opinions of a very influential body here. It is quite consistent with them that Dufferin's mission should be looked on with favour by those who hold them.
Clémenceau's views seem to be confined to himself.
The thing most favourable to our coming to an understanding with France, is the very general belief among Frenchmen that Bismarck is egging indirectly both England and France on to a quarrel.
In the meantime the alarm caused by the anarchists is enough to keep the minds of the great majority of the French fixed on their own internal affairs. People are sending away their securities and other valuables to foreign countries. I suppose an absolute outbreak in force enough to resist the Government, if the Government be resolute, is not to be expected. But there may be explosions of dynamite here and there, and the employment of the other new-fangled means of creating panic which the French seem to be inclined to adopt from the Russians.
The competition of America and other causes are producing a curious change in the French peasantry, and a change not favourable to peace and order. The tenacity with which the very small proprietors have hitherto clung to their land is visibly diminishing. They now offer their land for sale to an extent hitherto quite unprecedented. They say that they can get better interest by putting the price of the land into the funds or other speculations, and can thus lead a pleasant life, instead of slaving from morning to night to get a bare subsistence out of their fields. The tendency of all this is to reduce the numbers of the hitherto ultra-Conservative laborious class, and to fill the towns more and more with idle and very often disappointed and discontented speculators, who form a material ready to the hand of anarchists.
The letters from Lord Granville show that although the British Government had embarked most unwillingly upon the Egyptian enterprise, and viewed additional responsibility with so much horror that some members of the Cabinet were even opposed to the office of Financial Adviser to the Egyptian Government being given to an Englishman, yet that the Cabinet was at all events unanimously against the maintenance of the Control, and of the old dual arrangements. The French Government, with an entire absence of logic and common sense, was quite indisposed to recognize the complete change in the situation which had taken place, and continued to claim that England and France should remain on an equality as regarded themselves, and in a superior position as far as the other Powers were concerned. The difficulty lay in discovering some means of satisfying French vanity without yielding on the essential point of equality, and efforts to ascertain what would be considered satisfactory did not meet with much success.
Lord Lyons to Lord Granville.
Paris, Nov. 14, 1882.
I tried to make Duclerc see yesterday that the practical way towards obtaining some satisfaction for French amour-propre was to enter upon the discussion of details as to the Boards in Egypt. I went as far as I could without running the risk of provoking lofty language, which might have been an obstacle to moderate arrangements hereafter.
However, at the moment Duclerc did not go back from his old grounds. He does not insist upon a literal re-establishment of the Control, but he does claim a virtual return to the status quo ante, and he interprets that status as equality between England and France and superiority of the two jointly over other Powers.
The single Financial Councillor pleases no one here. As he must of course be an Englishman, the sticklers for French gloriole declare that whether his functions be great or small, he will simply be a symbol of English supremacy and French decadency. To the haute and petite finance, the mode of his appointment and the smallness of his powers seem an additional cause of complaint, as not giving sufficient security for a proper administration of the finances of Egypt. I shall be very anxious to hear how it all strikes Dufferin.
In fact, at the present moment, the French are too uneasy about their internal affairs to pay much attention to Egypt. But they may fire up if any special event comes to irritate them. It is more, however, future lasting ill will than violence at the moment which I apprehend. If we leave them bitterly discontented with arrangements in Egypt, I hardly see when we shall be able to withdraw our troops and still maintain the influence which is a necessity to us.
The idea that the British occupation of Egypt was anything more than a temporary expedient does not seem to have been considered a serious possibility by any English Minister so far. Partly by luck, partly by the skill of Sir Garnet Wolseley and Lord Dufferin, we had found ourselves in possession of Egypt, unhampered by association with any European Power or with the Turks; but for a time it looked as if the brilliant results achieved were to be thrown away because the British Government had no clear idea what its policy was to be. Fortunately for all concerned, the step was taken of sending Lord Dufferin on a special mission to Cairo, and unlike most special missions of more recent date, the experiment proved a complete success, and quickly destroyed the mischievous delusion entertained by a section of English politicians that an evacuation of Egypt was possible at any early date. This delusion had never been shared by the French, who naturally judged the action of others in the light in which they themselves would have acted under similar circumstances, and who made little effort to conceal their annoyance.
Lord Lyons to Lord Granville.
Paris, Dec. 1, 1882.