EGYPT’S FATEFUL NUMBER

Evening Star, Issue 22365, 15 June 1936, Page 12

EGYPT’S FATEFUL NUMBER

INFLUENCE OF 13 IN HISTORY Maitre Fikri Abaza, the talented editor of ‘ Al Mosawar,’ the leading Egyptian pictorial, draws attention to the curious fact that the number 13 has been associated with many events in the history of Egypt’s relations with Great Britain. ... , . The English landed in Alexandria on July 13, 1882, and entered Cairo on July 13 the same year. The Dinshiway affair, which still rankles in the minds of the Egyptians, occurred on June 13, 1906. The first demand for independence was presented to Sir Reginald Wingate, the then High Commissioner, on November 13, 1918, which has ever since been observed as a national anniversary. The Wafd, which as formed afterwards to obtain th'e country’s aspirations, was composed of 13 notables. When Rushby Pasha’s fourth Cabinet resigned, in order to sympathise with Government officials in the national movement, it had been in office only 13 days. The fast Cabinet resigned as a result of a disagreement with the British Government on November 13, 1934 The clauses in both the 1930 draft treaty and that negotiated by Sarwat Pasha in 1927, which dealt with the Sudan, one of the great stumbling blocks to an agreement, were numbered 13. The writer affirms that, although in all these cases Egypt suffered, the fact that the delegation which has now been formed to converse with Great Britain is composed of 13 persons, and that the Rescript, which authorised its formation. was issued on January 13, does not inspire Egyptians with any P e ®simistic feeling, as which have been the case with the foreigners who 1 attach so much superstitious importance to the figure 13. He believes that at last success from the Egyptian point or view will attach to the connection of the present conversations with that fateful number.