Lord Cromer, some years after his retirement from colonial government in Egypt, recalled the story of a British politician who had presented himself before a senior official in the Sudan. He declared that he meant to gain a thorough understanding of the country and its people, and added reassuringly that he quite expected to be finished by the following Friday.

Lord Cromer reflected that visiting politicians interested in colonial affairs were prone to making ill-informed judgments about foreign peoples, confident in their briefings in London prior to sailing. Indeed, so many conformed to the type that those who lived and worked abroad chuckled over a caricature of him, whom they had christened ‘Padgett, MP’.

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