UNLUCKY WORDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 23, 28 January 1936, Page 18

UNLUCKY WORDS

BX BRITISH LEADERS

CAUSE OF TROUBLE IN EGYPT

NATIONAL EIGHTS

When the Halo-Ethiopian episode entered upon its present grave phase, wherever one went in Egypt one heard the desire expressed to cooperate as much as possible with, and render all assistance to, Great Britain in the task she had assumed of executing the decisions of the League of Nations, wrote the Cairo correspondent of the "Cape Times," just after the riots in Egypt. To a great extent this was prompted by deep sympathy with the Abyssinians in their fight for existence as an independent entity. But, as time went on and the reality of Egypt's own position became apparent, there ensued an intensification in the desire to facilitate Great Britain's work, which, it was realised, was as much for the defence of Egypt as for the safeguarding of Imperial Communications. Today, but two months later, although Egypt has still the same need of protection, although there is still the same urge to sympathise with the Abyssinians, whose cause Great Britain, it is recognised, has taken up so warmly, there is in most circles a rapidly-growing feeling of bitter hostility towards Great Britain. This has found expression in violent speeches from the opposition leaders and in somewhat serious anti-British demonstrations in the capital, in Alexandria and in the chief provincial town of Tantah.

To outsiders, this sudden, almost incomprehensible, hostility towards the nation which is actually spending money, and prepared to spend men as well, on the safeguarding of the country, springs from two causes. The first actually reposes in the measures which the British Government has deemed it essential to carry out in Egypt for the attainment of its purposes of both defending the country and- furthering the objects of the League. GROUNDS OF COMPLAINT. The transfer of the Fleet from Malta to Alexandria, the creation of military and air bases in the Western Desert in response to Italian concentration in Libya, the extension of the air-centre of Abukir, the re-creation of the old war camp at Sidi Bishr, and the hundred and one things which the presence of a large body of troops calls for, all these have conduced to become so many grounds of comjplaint or irritation.

What rather started the trouble and caused widespread surprise, since no one here, even official Egyptian circles, knew anything about it, was the unguarded statement made by Mr. Runciman, since contradicted officially by the British Government, though too tardily to have any real effect, that it was the intention of the Admiralty to create a permanent naval base at Alexandria. At once circles, interested in making things difficult for us, inspired articles in the local Press inquiring how such a step could possibly be taken by Great Britain without consulting, and arranging the matter first, with the Egyptian Government. And it was not long before the accusation became general that the' British authorities, in all the naval and military measures they werfe taking, were acting entirely without reference to the Egyptian Government and so were encroaching on the sovereign rights of Egypt and treating her as a vassal, and not as an independent, State, etc. The second cause has been the vexed question of the return of the Constitution which had been raised in the spring, only to be left once again in abeyance. So much capital had been made out of the alleged British encroachment on Egyptian independence that the Liberals and the Wafd, the extremist party, both of which are out of office, decided that they could not go on any longer without taking some action if only to preserve their position in the country. MINOR CONCESSIONS. The Wafd had supported the present Cabinet, under which Tewfik Nessim Pasha, the King's former confidential agent, had succeeded and suppressed the very despotic constitutional regime introduced by Sidky Pasha in 1930 in substitution for the first or 1923 Constitution. And it had, in return for that support, managed to obtain minor concessions, which enabled it to keep fts rank and file quiet. The Liberals, who had been against the Sidky regime, had hoped that when it came to an end they would succeed. To their disappointment they were left out in the cold and they had been sulking in their tents ever since, watching for an opportunity to make a bid for power once again. They saw in the British naval base and military activities a chance to assert themselves, and the Wafd on its side countered with activities calculated to overbid their rivals in the public opinion. While the competition between these two rival opposition, parties was "becoming active there, burst on to the scene a bombshell in the form of a statement made at the Guildhall banquet by Sir Samuel Hoare to the effect that the British Government disapproved of both the original, or 1923, Constitution, and the 1930 Constitution with which Sidky Pasha had replaced ft, and that they considered that when the opportune moment arrived for a return to Parliamentary life, an entirely new Constitution should be . framed to meet the present-day needs of the country. AN OUTCRY. At once there was an outcry that the -declaration of 1922, which had abolished the Protectorate and recognised Egypt as an independent sovereign State, had laid down that the question of the Constitution was one to be entirely decided between the King and his people. Therefore Sir Samuel Hoare's statement was an unwarrantable interference with, and encroachment on, Egypt's rights. ■ Admittedly the statement was unfortunate. For, although the British Government's opinion was known to the various political leaders the knowledge had not extended beyond them and they had been content to leave it at that knowing full well that they could not resist this opposition. The publication of the fact in su"ch an authoritative manner compelled them for their own preservation to take notice thereof. What made the incident doubly unfortunate was that it occurred on the eve, so to speak, of the anniversary of the first demand for Egyptian independence, which is religiously observed .in Egypt and the observance of which in itself excites the intelligentsia.

What between the self-intoxication, •which Egyptian, like all Oriental, students undergo when they become excited, and the incitement of the speeches made on Independence Day by the Nationalist leaders, when they preached opposition to the Governfment and non-co-operation with the British, the various demonstrations which normally mark that day, assumed quite an aggressive form. To the cries of "Down With Hoare," "Long Live Eevolution" the demonstrators, mainly students and Azharites, flung ■themselves on the police cordons fwhich barred their way, and several ;nasty incidents occurred in which the

police were compelled to fire in selfdefence, and in the aggregate a large number of casualties resulted. The situation is well in hand and as far as can be seen the active agitation is over. But there is today abroad in Egypt, mainly it is true among the intelligentsia, a bitter, fierce anti-British feeling which is steadily growing and has completely eclipsed the desire to co-operate with, and the apparently deep feeling of friendship for Great Britain that existed everywhere but two months ago. . It will no doubt blow over in due course, for in Egypt memories are proverbially short. But, in the meantime, the venerable Prime Minister carries on impervious to the outcry for his resignation, but convinced that even if it means that he must govern without the support of any political faction, it is his duty to stick to the helm until he has satisfied himself that the time has come for him to hand over to another. The patriotism of Nessim Pasha, his dogged loyalty contrast strikingly with the opportunism, even in the face of national crisis, and the solicitude for their own personal position of the majority of the leading political men in Egypt today. At the same time it cannot be overlooked that, if it had not been for what one may call with all respect the indiscretions on the part of two of the leading members of the British Cabt net, not only would the present antiBritish spirit not be abroad in Egypt but there would not have been the bloodshed which has unfortunately marked the past week's events.

If only our statesmen at Home would realise that what they say in public has a far wider audience than their own fellow-countrymen at Home and would fashion their declarations to meet the hyper-sensitive psychology of the people of these Oriental lands about whom they are speaking, how much easier it would be for those people to be governed, and how many unfortunate incidents, adversely affecting the relations between them and- Great Britain, would be avoided.