The policy pursued from the beginning of the British occupation of Egypt in 1882 was based on reducing the number of Europeans in the Egyptian government service as much as possible, employing Egyptians in most suitable positions and many high administrative positions, and gradually paving the way for increasing the number of Egyptians in high positions. All senior British officials in the Egyptian government were therefore attentive to this policy. Some of them may have been more successful than others in training and educating their Egyptian subordinates, and some may have been more insistent than others on the necessity for an Egyptian to reach a high level of competence before overlooking the appointment of a European and appointing an Egyptian in his place. But I say that I did not find any of the senior British officials in this country less inclined to disagree on whether this policy was correct and wise, or less hesitant to implement it once convinced of the existence of a suitable Egyptian to fill the vacant position.

However, the difficulty is very great in quickly replacing a large number of European officials with Egyptian officials in the government. The nature of this difficulty is not well understood, so it is better for me to elaborate on it a little. I say that this matter is often discussed, but on the assumption that there are positions in the government held by Europeans, even though it is easy to find Egyptians capable of filling them. I am not saying that this purpose is entirely without merit, but rather that it is far from reality, as I have no doubt that there are a few positions that, if the current Europeans were removed from them, there would be no one immediately suitable to replace them among the Egyptians. However, most of the positions currently held by Europeans are held for the reason I mentioned earlier, which is that the available competent Egyptians are barely sufficient to meet the demands. If I were not afraid of this report being criticized, especially with figures, I would be pleased to prove in detail that most of the young Egyptians who graduated from secondary or higher schools entered the Egyptian government service without any difficulty at all, and every head of department complains that there is no shortage of personnel to meet the needs of the service. Anyone who reflects on the modern history and present situation of Egypt will not be surprised by what I have mentioned, but rather would be surprised that the difficulty I mentioned did not occur or did not happen.

The employment of Europeans in the Egyptian government has two purposes: the first is to obtain individuals with technical and industrial knowledge that Egyptians could not obtain until recently, and the second is to compensate for the deficiency in the Egyptian populace due to the long period of misrule it has endured.