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Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
Diary entry of 28 November, 1893
28th Nov. 1893.- on board the Hydaspes. The only fellow passengers I have made
acquaintance with are Lady Waterford and Sir John Stokes, the latter on his way to the Suez
Canal of which he is Director, to open a new railroad from Port Said to Ismailia. With Stokes
I have had much talk about the Suez Canal, British trade and the Mediterranean route in time
of war. He tells me three-quarters of the tonnage passing through the Canal is British, of which
perhaps half is for English ports, the rest for other ports in Europe. In time of war with France,
this could not continue. The Red Sea was quite safe, but the whole line of the Mediterranean
would be blocked, and this would continue until the British had broken up the enemy's forces
and confined them to their ports, then convoys could be arranged and trade resumed. He considers
that it would require sixty or seventy more men-of-war than we have at present to effect this as
against the French navy. He is for making the increase, not for abandoning the control of the
Mediterranean. He considers that the Canal will eventually be internationalized, though by the
terms of the concession it will revert to Egypt in 1959, but ' nobody looks so far as that ahead.'
Stokes reminded me that our first acquaintance dates from the time of Cave Mission in 1875,
of which he was a member. He is a stolid old fellow of the out-of-date military type, being
a General in the army.
From Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, "My Diaries", vol 1, p118.
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