WHEN MR. SPEAKER MET A KING

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 199, 20 May 1936, Page 13

WHEN MR. SPEAKER MET A KING

Hon. W. E. Barnard Among Cairo Rioters “LIVES IN OUR HANDS,” COMPANION SAYS An incident of war-time. lirst. alarming and then amusing, is told by Frank Sturges Harty iu the “Sydney Morning Herald” of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon. W. E. Barnard, who was a gunner <" Hie Royal Field Artillery. The story treats of the demonstrations which arose when Zagliloul Pasha was returned to Egypt by the direction of Whitehall after Lord Allenby had deported him to Cyprus. The day he arrived in Alexandria there was a general strike, with many disturbances, throughout Egypt. Frank Sturges Harty writes: “On 'the day of Zagliloul Pasha’s return, although we had been ordered not to leave camp, four of us, including the Speaker in the present New Zealand Parliament—Mr. W. E. Barnard —decided that there were sure to be ructions and the fun was too good to miss; so, in walking dress, without any arms whatever, we jumped on a train and duly arrived at Cairo station. What we saw amazed us. The streets were absolutely full of a motley crowd, which flowed along slowly like a turgid stream. Egyptians of the effendi class, with their red tarbooshes, rubbed shoulders with lean, brown Bedouins and blue-robed Coptic peasants. . . . In high spirits we pushed along with them, willy-nilly, we cared not where. Every now and then the multitude lifted up its voice in a deafening shout of ‘Yaliil Wotan!’ (the Fatherland). It was a very good-natured crowd, and in our broken Arabic we exchanged pleasantries with those nearest ns. In Difficulties. “At length we came into the square opposite the Esbekieh Gardens, a favourite rendezvous of Hie British in Cairo. Glad to be free of the congestion and once more to breathe without inhaling the bouquet d’Afrique, we escaped into the gardens and were rather surprised to notice a cordon of fully-armed troops drawn round the area. We noticed that several machine x ms werc a I- s0 in evidence. In the gardens we found a tense atmosphere. On all sides we heard rumours that an armed insurrection was expected to break out. We heard, also, that sniping had been going on by Egyptian marksmen hidden in the top of the minaret of a mosque overlooking the Opera Square. As the afternoon drew on. the tension increased, and suddenly there was a burst of tiring—the ominous chatter of machineguns. It looked as though preparations were being made to place Esbekieh Gardens in a state of siege. “This did not suit our plans at all, for in order to escape trouble when we got back to Zeitlin we would have to be back in camp before rollcall at sunset. So wo held a council of war, and three of us decided to take the chance of being pulled to pieces by the excited crowd and return to the station. Barnard, myself and another, named Hill, of the Camel Corps, approached one of the gates leading out of the gardens to make a dash across the square. It was not a very pleasant prospect, for immediately in front of us was a thin line of British soldiers, and the square itself was quite empty, except for one or two imthetic bundles of rags, i the unfortunate victims of the ‘incident.’ On the far side was the densely-packed mass of Egyptians whose procession had been interrupted by the shooting. Like swimmers making up their minds to take ■the plunge, we deliberated as _ to what we should do. Then, seizing what appeared to be an opportune moment, we dashed across the square and bored fiuto the crowd. While not cordially received, there were no active demonstrations of hostility as we pushed our way against the stream of traffic. After a little while, there were signs that our uniforms were not exactly passjiorts to safety, and we realised that we carried our lives iu our hands. Every moment the evidence of our unpopularity became more manifest, so we felt like rats in a trap. , Flag-wagging with a Purpose. “.Inst then 1 had a brain-wave. A little ..boy was vociferously shouting his wares—little Egyptian flagswith three crescents and stars. Some were quite plainly old Turkish lings with the one crescent and star. Everyone was waving a ling, so I suggested that wo do the same. The boy was delighted to receive three or four times the price he was asking for the flags, and as we brandished them enthusiastically over our heads we yelled, ‘Yabll Wotan!’ ‘Yaliil Wo-

tan!’ The change in the crowd’s attitude was instantaneous—it was miraculous. We received smiles on every side, pats on the back, and, whereas before our ruse-de-guerre we only made our way by strenuous pushing, now a path was made for us and blessings descended on our heads.

“As we were passing an intersection a handsome black limousine was slowly nosing its way through the crowd, and we were carried right alongside. 'The occupants were obviously persons of importance. The driver was in handsome livery, topped with a tarboosh. As we got level with the car windows to our surprise we recognised the Khedive, later known as King Fuad. He looked nt us in astonishment. Frank incredulity was in his eyes. Three British soldiers marching witli tlie demonstrators against British rule and waving Bgyptian Then a smile came over his face which broadened into a grin as his flambuoyant moustache went, up to his eyes, and leaning out through the window of ids ear he made a gracious bow and said, 'Thank you, gentlemen.’ An Easy Passage. “Tlie crowd went frantic with joy. Shouts of ‘Yaliil Wotan!’ ‘Yaliil Wotan!’ reverberated through the street, and were caught up by tlie multitude until we could hear them echoing in the distance. We excelled ourselves in joining in tiie general acclamation, waving our flags with frantic zeal. 'The car moved on, and for us the rest of tli<> way was easy. It was almost a triumphal procession. Escorted by several effendis, we were taken to a cafe and regaled with Turkish coffee ami cakes, patted on the back and assured that we were the only British in Egypt who sympathised with Egyptians in their desire for independence. We reached camp quite safely, allhough the train immediately preceding ours had been fired on and a soldier shot. “Tills was Hie only occasion on which I was privileged to see a. monarch who, as time Jias proved, was playing a most difficult part in trying to help his friends tlie British without losing the loyalty and affection of his people. King Fuad had been a faithful ally to tlie British.”