Afoot in England | Page 4

Mr. Roosevelt's arrival, Boutros Pasha,
the Prime Minister, a native Egyptian Christian, and one of the ablest
administrative officers that Egypt has ever produced, had been brutally
assassinated by a Nationalist. The murder was discussed everywhere
with many shakings of the head, but in quiet corners, and low tones of
voice. Military and civil officers complained in private that the home
government was paying little heed to the assassination and to the spirit
of disorder which brought it about. English residents, who are
commonly courageous and outspoken in great crises, gave one the
impression of speaking in whispers in the hope that if it were ignored,

the agitation might die away instead of developing into riot and
bloodshed.
Now this way of dealing with a law-breaker and political agitator is
totally foreign to Mr. Roosevelt; even his critics admit that he both
talks and fights in the open. In two speeches in Khartum, one at a
dinner given in his honor by British military and civil officers, and one
at a reception arranged by native Egyptian military men and officials,
he pointed out in vigorous language the dangers of religious fanaticism
and the kind of "Nationalism" that condones assassination. Newspaper
organs of the Nationalists attacked him for these speeches when he
arrived in Cairo. This made him all the more determined to say the
same things in Cairo when the proper opportunity came, especially as
officials, both military and civil, of high rank and responsibility, had
persistently urged him to do what he properly could to arouse the
attention of the British Government to the Egyptian situation. The
opportunity came in an invitation to address the University of Cairo.
His speech was carefully thought out and was written with equal care;
some of his friends, both Egyptian, and English, whom he consulted,
were in the uncertain frame of mind of hoping that he would mention
the assassination of Boutros, but wondering whether he really ought to
do so. Mr. Roosevelt spoke with all his characteristic effectiveness of
enunciation and gesture. He was listened to with earnest attention and
vigorous applause by a representative audience of Egyptians and
Europeans, of Moslems and Christians. The address was delivered on
the morning of March 28th; in the afternoon the comment everywhere
was, "Why haven't these things been said in public before?" Of course
the criticisms of the extreme Nationalists were very bitter. Their
newspapers, printed in Arabic, devoted whole pages to denunciations of
the speech. They protested to the university authorities against the
presentation of the honorary degree which was conferred upon Mr.
Roosevelt; they called him "a traitor to the principles of George
Washington," and "an advocate of despotism"; an orator at a
Nationalist mass meeting explained that Mr. Roosevelt's "opposition to
political liberty" was due to his Dutch origin, "for the Dutch, as every
one knows, have treated their colonies more cruelly than any other
civilized nation"; one paper announced that the United States Senate
had recorded its disapproval of the speech by taking away Mr.

Roosevelt's pension of five thousand dollars, in amusing ignorance of
the fact that Mr. Roosevelt never had any pension of any kind
whatsoever. On the other hand, government officers of authority united
with private citizens of distinction (including missionaries, native
Christians, and many progressive Moslems) in expressing, personally
and by letter, approval of the speech as one that would have a wide
influence in Egypt in supporting the efforts of those who are working
for the development of a stable, just, and enlightened form of
government. In connection with the more widely-known Guildhall
address on the same subject it unquestionably has such an influence.
Between the delivery of the Cairo speech and that of the next fixed
address, the lecture at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23d, there were a
number of extemporaneous and occasional addresses of which no
permanent record has been, or can be made. Some of these were
responses to speeches of welcome made by municipal officials on
railway platforms, or were replies to toasts at luncheons and dinners. In
Rome, Mayor Nathan gave a dinner in his honor in the Campidoglio, or
City Hall, which was attended by a group of about fifty men prominent
in Italian official or private life. On this occasion the Mayor read an
address of welcome in French, to which Mr. Roosevelt made a reply
touching upon the history of Italy and some of the social problems with
which the Italian people have to deal in common with the other
civilized nations of the earth. He began his reply in French, but soon
broke off, and continued in English, asking the Mayor to translate it,
sentence by sentence, into Italian for the assembled guests, most of
whom did not speak English. Both the speech itself and the