The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1930. THE EGYPTIAN SITUATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 173, 24 July 1930, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1930. THE EGYPTIAN SITUATION.

For. the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistanM, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The position of affairs in Egypt still gives the British Government grave cause for anxiety. A week ago, after considerable rioting and some bloodshed at Alexandria and elsewhere, two British battleships arrived in Egyptian waters. The Egyptian Prime Minister resented the action of the British Government, protesting that Egypt's independence was infringed and asserting that order was now Three days later news arrived of serious riots at Cairo and Port Said, and though the Egyptian authorities have reiterated their assurance that they have the situation well in hand, it is doubtful whether the Nationalist leaders are able, even if they are willing, to restrain their followers.

The most serious feature of the present crisis is the danger to which the foreigners resident in Egypt are exposed. There are many thousands of them—Greeks, Italians, French and British, and some few Germans and Americans. Many of them belong to families domiciled in the country for centuries, and their superior intelligence and ability have given them control of many important commercial and financial interests. Apart from these, the employment of large numbers of Greeks aind Italians as shopkeepers and shop assistants appears to act as a constant-irritant to Egyptian Nationalist feeling. The consequence is that when any excuse for a riotous public demonstration occurs the Europeans are always in danger of ferocious and sanguinary mob-violence. Under such circumstances, as Lord Wintei'ton has said, "the lives and property of these people are unsafe without measures for their security which Egyptians themselves cannot or will not provide."

The last serious disturbances of this kind took place at Alexandria in 1921, when Europeans were insulted and assaulted, and some of them were murdered "without the slightest real effort on the part of the police to protect them.'* Similarly, on the occasion o£ the "train murders" in 1919, the Egyptian officials close at hand did nothing whatever to restrain the fury of the mob. This is bad enough in itself, but it involves Britain in certain peculiarly dangerous responsibilities. By the Declaration of 1922 Britain made herself answerable for the security of foreign residents in Egypt. Even supposing that the British Government hesitates to use force to protect its own subjects in Egypt, is it to-be expected that foreign Powers will see their "nationals" molested or massacred without an effort to save them? It is recorded, on good authority, that during the disturbances of 1921 at Alexandria, the commander of a foreign warship notified the authorities that unless British troops restored order in the streets within an hour he would land his own men to do so. The murder of an Italian or Frenchman by the mob may at any moment provoke a demand for immediate action, and the political complications that might then arise are "better imagined than described."