ABSTRACT
WE turn now to the results of Akhenaten's new creed, with its consequent foreign policy, or lack of policy, upon the great empire which had been left to the king by his predecessors, and which, even before his accession, had gradually been falling into a condition which needed careful handling and strenuous action. The situation in Egypt's northern provinces-Palestine, Syria, and Phrenicia-may be roughly compared to our own position as overlords of India. In both cases there is an empire originally gained by the sword, but held under conditions which are by no means stringent as regards the subject peoples. I n both a great part of the administration is still carried on by the native princes, who have certain responsibilities with regard to their suzerain power, but have a certain amount of liberty of action within their own borders, controlled where necessary by Egyptian or British residents; and in both the plan has been adopted of training the younger generation of native rulers in the knowledge and the ideals of the supreme power-with only a moderate amount of success. And in both, while the foreign yoke presses as lightly as may be upon the necks of the subject states, its mere presence is in many cases resented, and there is an ever-present tendency to favour any movement which might result in its removal, and a cunstant ferment of intrigue with powers which might
conceivably prove helpful in the accomplishment of this desirable end, without any very clear comprehension of what the ultimate consequences of such an overturn might be. If we were to picture to ourselves an I ndia in something of its present condition of ferment, and add to the picture the idea of an united and aggressive Russia moving steadily southwards under an irresistible impulse towards expansion, and using as its tools for the prelim· inary weakening of British power a constant system of intrigue with the border states, Afghanistan, Tibet, and the rest--intrigue aimed at the stirring up of strife between the border states and the Indian Empire, and the cutting off by the border states of outlying salients and dependencies of the empire, we should have a rough, but not inaccurate, idea of the situation as regards the Egyptian Empire in Asia and its relations with the other powers in contact with it.
