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Lord Cromer: Practitioner and Philosopher of Imperialism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

Robert L. Tignor
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Extract

For many Englishmen Lord Cromer was the embodiment of the British imperial tradition. As one who had spent the greater part of his lifetime in the East representing British power and had crowned his career by being virtual ruler of occupied Egypt from 1883 to 1907, he had come increasingly to symbolize the proconsular tradition in British imperialism. His retirement from his post as Consul-General of Egypt had seemed to many the end of an era. Or as the editors of the Living Age had put it:

Lord Cromer's was a masterful personality, but the real field of its ascendancy came to lie as the years of his tenure of power lengthened out, rather in England than in Egypt. He became the center of a legend, the typical figure of modern imperialism, which dominated our foreign policy.

Thus, to the supporter of an imperial policy he was “the regenerator of Egypt” and “the empire-builder”; and to the anti-imperialists, heirs of the Gladstonian tradition, the suppressor of Egyptian liberties and the tyrant of the East. In the latter years of his administration of Egypt the mere mention of his name in Parliament was enough to touch off a lively debate on the merits of imperialism.

Unfortunately, Cromer's reputation as a typical imperialist has obscured the fact that in the early years of his life he was not known for his imperialistic ideals. Quite the contrary, he was considered by others and considered himself a liberal of Gladstonian persuasion.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , May 1963 , pp. 142 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1963

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References

1. Lord Cromer, born Evelyn Baring, did not become a peer until 1892. For purposes of clarity, however, he will be referred to throughout as Cromer.

2. “The Empire Builder,” Living Age, CCXCII (1917), 758 .Google Scholar The article was written upon the occasion of the death of Lord Cromer in January, 1917.

3. See, for instance, the debate in the House of Commons in 1907 ostensibly over the issue of whether to grant Cromer a sum of £50,000 as a reward for his services in Egypt. Parliamentary Debates, fourth series, 1907, CLXXIX, cols. 858-886.

4. Cromer had once seriously considered standing for Parliament as a “moderate liberal,” but was dissuaded by Gladstone who feared that the major work of the Liberals in destroying privilege was nearly complete. Cromer, Lord, “The Politician Wordsworth,” Political and Literary Essays, third series (London, 1916), p. 262 .Google Scholar He also admitted to a high regard for John Bright who, he felt, had helped to bring political action “under the control of moral duty.” Cromer, , Political and Literary Essays, second series (London, 1915), p. 331 .Google Scholar

5. The article he wrote in defence of the bill was published in the Nineteenth Century under the title, “Recent Events in India,” 1883, pp. 569–89.Google ScholarPubMed

6. Quoted in Blunt, Wilfred Scawen, Gordon at Khartoum (London, 1911), p. 40 .Google Scholar The Economist, June 2, 1883. Blunt, who was certainly not easy to please because of his support for Egyptian independence, admitted that Cromer's “reputation at that time for large-mindedness … caused it to be believed that he would do his best to hasten, not delay the evacuation of Cairo.”

7. See the biography of Louis Mallet by his son: Mallet, Bernard, Sir Louts Mallet (London, 1905).Google Scholar

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11. Louis Mallet to Baring, No. 222, April 9, 1884, PRO, FO 633/VII, Cromer Papers.

12. Cromer, Lord, Speeches and Miscellaneous Writings, 1882-1911 (London, 1912), I. 376 .Google Scholar

13. Baring to Granville, No. 23, Jan. 4, 1884, PRO, FO 633/VII, and Baring to Goschen, No. 139, March 5, 1887, PRO, FO 633/V, Cromer Papers.

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17. Cromer, , Speeches, I, 125. Google Scholar

18. Cromer, , Ancient and Modern Imperialism, p. 15 .Google Scholar The Durham Report had laid the proper foundations for the self-governing colonies, Cromer believed.

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26. In his farewell speech in 1907 Cromer said: “I have always told myself that it was m first duty to do my utmost to safeguard the interests of my own country and o f Egypt. I put Great Britain and Egypt in the same category because I refuse to consider them apart. I uphold that, once well understood, the interests of these two countries are absolutely identical.” Cromer, , Speeches, I, 140. Google Scholar

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30. See Storrs, Ronald, Memoirs (New York, 1937), p. 76 Google Scholar, who remarks that the system of “British heads and Egyptian hands” had worked admirably “so long as these advisers and inspectors were, like the poems of Sappho, few indeed but roses. But by 1910 there were too many of the first and far too many of the second.”

31. Willcocks, William, Sixty Years in the East (London, 1935), p. 119 .Google Scholar

32. See Cromer's interpretation in Abbas II. One should also check this with Blunt, Wilfred Scawen, My Diaries (New York, 1921), pp. 89ff and 120ffGoogle Scholar, Blunt being one of the critics who, through his friends in Parliament and his publications, led the assault on Cromer. Lord Rosebery, Foreign Minister during the crisis, supported Cromer unflinchingly, but was not entirely pleased with the way Cromer handled the situation. He wrote to the Queen: “He [Rosebery] cannot think the tone of his [Cromer's] telegram was judicious and constituted indeed the greatest obstacle in Lord Rosebery's path. Lord Cromer is gouty; but his gout, though a disease by no means incompatible with statesmanship, is an element in the situation which requires vigilance on the part of the sufferer.” Marquess of Crewe, Lord Rosebery, New York, 1931, p. 324 .Google Scholar

33. Cromer to Grey, No. 72, April 27, 1907, PRO, FO 141/406, Cromer Papers.

34. See Abduh's remarks in DeGuerville, A. B., New Egypt (London, 1905), pp. 158–62.Google Scholar

35. The tragedy of the situation was that in the first decade Cromer tried to popularize and liberalize his administration. He put great pressure on Abbas's predecessor, Khedive Tawfiq (1879-92), to bring more popular figures into the government and to break the monopoly the old ruling aristocracy had established over top ministerial positions. The disputes with Abbas seemed to put an end to these efforts. Henceforth Cromer was content to rule through the very men he had tried to supplant in 1892. See, for instance, Baring to Salisbury, No. 118, May 15, 1891, PRO, FO 78/4385, where Cromer encouraged Tawfiq to introduce “a really Egyptian element into the cabinet.”

36. Cromer, , Speeches, I, 454. Google Scholar

37. Rodd, James Rennell, Social and Diplomatic Memories (London, 1923), II, 16 .Google Scholar Rodd added that “even such men as Kitchener and Sir Leslie Rundle [of the British and Egyptian armies] admitted to me that they always approached the door of his study with a sense of shyness and misgiving.”

38. Willcocks, , Sixty Years in the East, p. 116 .Google Scholar

39. Cromer stood with the British generals reviewing the British troops as they passed by Abdin square in the center of Cairo. al-Rafi i, Abd al-Rahman, Mustafa Kamil, (Cairo, 1950), p. 181 .Google Scholar

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42. Cromer himself wrote at a later date: “Moreover, the unfortunate Denshawai incident … resulted in a number of accused persons being condemned to sentences, though not unjust, were, I may now readily admit, unduly severe ….” Cromer, , Abbas II, p. x .Google Scholar

43. Parliamentary Papers, 1906, CXXXVII Google Scholar, Egypt, No. 3, cd. 3086, No. 1, Cromer to Kimberley, Feb. 24, 1895, and No. 3, Cromer to Kimberley, Feb. 26, 1895, containing Cromer's statement on the need for the tribunal and the decree establishing it.

44. See, for instance, Cromer to Salisbury, No. 122, Sep. 24, 1897, PRO, FO 78/4864; Cromer to Lansdowne No. 36, June 7, 1902, PRO, FO 78/5227; and Cromer to Lansdowne, No. 132, Dec. 9, 1905, PRO, FO 78/5431. All contain Cromer's description of agitation against British rule, of incidents between British soldiers and the Egyptian population, and of his feeling that the opposition could be snuffed out only by a more vigorous policy.

45. Nasr, Muhammed, Dinshawai wa-l-Sihafh (Cairo, 1958)Google Scholar, contains quotations to this effect from al-Muqattam, a usually informed pro-British newspaper. See pp. 108-112.

46. Grey of Fallodon, Twenty-five Years, I, 134. Google Scholar Grey seems to hint at the fact that the reason Cromer could not be reached was that he had not yet returned to England. The sentences were carried out twenty-four hours after the verdict had been rendered. The Egyptian Gazette confirms this fact, mentioning that Cromer landed in England after the floggings and executions had been carried out.

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49. Cromer had actually written to Milner in 1891 that “foreign policy is pre-eminently a matter about which the crowd not only should, but may be guided.” Quoted in Wrench, John Evelyn, Alfred Lord Milner (London, 1958), p. 119 .Google Scholar But in an essay in 1913 he was very critical of Milner's views. Cromer, , “Lord Milner and Party,” Political and Literary Essays, 1908-13, p. 239 .Google Scholar

50. Cromer, , Speeches, I, 193. Google Scholar