Cromer deemed slavery practically respectable in Egyptian society

Evidence

The slave trade bureaus sanctioned by the Anglo-Egyptian Anti-Slavery Convention of 1877 now answered directly to the British Agent and consulgeneral of Egypt, Sir Evelyn Baring, soon to be named Lord Cromer, who funded them amply and supported their director, Colonel Charles Schaefer, enthusiastically. Cromer was not easily persuaded by the Anti-Slavery Society, which he in fact considered dangerously unacquainted with the political realities of Egypt and the Sudan. Part of his impatience with the Society stemmed from his sense that slavery was practically respectable in Egyptian society. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 673