The Regeneration Of Egypt Is Not A Theme Which Would Fall Within The
Limits Of This Account, Even If It Had Not Been Fully Dealt With By Sir
Alfred Milner.
But the reorganisation of the Egyptian army, the forging of
the weapon of reconquest, is an essential feature.
On the 20th of December,
1882, the old Egyptian army - or, rather, such parts as had escaped
destruction - was disbanded by a single sentence of a British decree,
and it was evident that some military body must replace that which had
been swept away. All sorts of schemes for the employment of foreign legions
or Turkish janissaries were devised. But Lord Dufferin adhered firmly to
the principle of entrusting the defence of a country to its inhabitants,
and it was determined to form a new Egyptian army. The poverty of the
government, no less than the apparent folly of the experiment, demanded
that the new army should be small. The force was intended only for the
preservation of internal order and the defence of the southern and western
frontiers of Egypt against the Bedouin Arabs. The Soudan still slumbered
out its long nightmare. Six thousand men was the number originally drawn
by conscription - for there are no volunteers in Egypt - from a population
of more than 6,000,000. Twenty-six British officers - either poor men
attracted by the high rates of pay, or ambitious allured by the increased
authority - and a score of excellent drill-sergeants undertook the duty of
teaching the recruits to fight.
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