tered
groups of Wahabi ascetics, Sufi mystics and esoterics of Bahaism
skirmish on debatable ground between the opposing lines, where range
such free-lance companies as Theosophists, Christian Scientists,
Salvationists, etc., all with local headquarters in Cairo and propaganda
of their own.

It must not be supposed that all this warlike metaphor indicates actual
strife or even severe friction, any more than "the hosts of Midian"
represents the attitude of missionaries to Moslems here. On the
contrary, relations are for the most part excellent, and the prevailing
animosity is political, not religious, being directed against us
British much as normal schoolboys dislike their form-master until they
get a harsher one.

The Catholic Church confines most of her energies to teaching her own
people, who are very numerous and well looked after; she does not do
much alien mission work in this part of the world. The most formidable
band of gladiators in the Christian ranks is the American Protestant
Mission, and next to them the Anglican C.M.S. (chiefly distinguished in
Egypt for its medical work, which is excellent and has an
extraordinarily wide range). The Americans are great on education and
have done more for the English language in Cairo than any Government
institution. I use the term "gladiators" advisedly, for their most
trenchant work is done on their own side--they concentrate their chief
efforts on the Copts, and make a fairly good bag of proselytes from
them, apart from the great number to whom they teach sound ideals of
duty as well as English and the three "R's." One of their leading
missionaries has left it on record that no one stands more in need of
salvation than the Copts, and as there is a Coptic Reform Society the
Copts must think there is room for improvement too.

It has been found in practice that to convert a _bona-fide_ Moslem
involves segregating him, and that means finding him a living in a new
environment, otherwise he is almost bound to "revert" under local
pressure. Apart from the strain on mission resources which such
procedure would cause if extensively followed, most missionaries rightly
condemn such a system as encouraging conversion for material motives.
Therefore they adopt a policy of "peaceful penetration" against Islam,
encouraging young men to come to them unostentatiously (I call them the
Nicodemus-squad) in order to discuss religious questions, which is
usually done in a temperate and