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Secret History Of The English Occupation Of Egypt - Being A Personal Narrative Events
Secret History Of The English Occupation Of Egypt Being A Personal Narrative Events Author:Wilfrid Scawen Blunt PUBLISHERS NOTE When I first arranged with Mr. Blunt to publish The Secret History of the English Occupation of Epypt, I suggested that he - write for the American Edition a brief foreword bringing the book into even closer relation to the Anglo-Egyptian situation as it stands today. He thought this idea a good one, and agreed to write such a no... more »te. But Mr. Blunt was born in 1840, and has for a number of years been in failing health. In June he wrote me that he was so ill as to be quite unable to finish the foreword, which he had actually commenced to write. He felt further more that any advantage the edition would gain by having a new preface by him. would be more than counterbalanced by any delay in the appear ance of the book at the present extremely critical moment. He remarked further What could I have said more appropriate to day as a new preface than the few words which already stand as the short preface I set to the first edition of my Secret History published in Lon don and which you reprint in this new edition . This and my poem The Wind and the Whirlwind which you also give as an Appendix. Both are absolutely true of the present shameful position of England m Egypt and the calamity so closely threatening her Eastern Empire. What could I say more exactly suited This is the punishment we are reaping today for our sin of that sad morning on the Nile which saw the first English gun open its thunder of aggression just forty years ago at Alexandria in the name of Englands honour. What could I add to my words of grief and shame then uttered and repeated here Let these stand for my new preface. My day is done. Alas that I should have lived to see those words come true of Englands punishment, more than true. A. A. K. PREFACE OF 1895 I desire to place on record in a succinct and tangible form the events which have come within my knowledge relating to the origin of the English occupation of Egypt not necessarily for publication now, but as an available document for the history of our times. At one moment I played in these events a some what prominent part, and for nearly twenty years I have been a close and interested spectator of the drama which was being acted at Cairo. It may well be, also, that the Egyptian question, though now quiescent, will reassert itself unexpectedly in some urgent form hereafter, requiring of Englishmen a new examination of their position there, political and moral and I wish to have at hand and ready for their enlightenment the whole of the materials I possess. I will give these as clearly as I can, with such doc uments in the shape of letters and journals as I can bring together in corroboration of my evidence, disguising nothing and telling the whole truth as I know it. It is not always in official documents that the truest facts of history are to be read, and certainly in the case of Egypt, where intrigue of all kinds has been so rife, the sincere student needs help to understand the published parliamentary papers. Lastly, for the Egyptians, if ever they succeed in re-establish ing themselves as an autonomous nation, it will be of value that they should have recorded the evidence of one whom they know to be their sincere friend in regard to matters of diplomatic obscurity which to this day they fail to realize. My relations with Downing Street in 1882 need to be related in detail if Egyptians are ever to appreciate the exact causes which led to the bombardment of Alexandria and the battle of Tel-el-Kebir, while justice to the patriot leader of their rebellion requires that I should give a no less detailed account of Arabis trial, which still presents itself to some Egyptian as to all French minds, in the light of a pre-arranged comedy devised to screen a traitor...« less