Untitled

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 18056, 25 March 1919, Page 4

No details have yet been telegraphed concerning the outbreaks in Egypt, and it is consequently impossible to say what tho Immediate cause of the troubles may be. The movement is described as a nationalist one, but if that is the case tho nationalist intrigue must have made enormous strides. Before tho War nationalism, so called, was financed mainly by the Khedive, who, virtually throughout his reign, was in touch with anti-British agitators, Turkish agents and German spies. ■ It was the business of the Egyptian Government to co-operato with the British Agent, and the Khedive did not hesitate to intrigue against his own Ministers. But the strength oi the extreme nationalist movement in recent years lay in the Pan-Islamic activity of the lurks, whoSo policy was industriously taught among the religious and university students. This Was, ostensibly, a religious movement, and for that reason it made far wider appeal in Egypt than a purely political movement would have made. It seems never to havo influenced the fellaheen to any considerable extent, but probably its agents argued that tho fellaheen could be brought into it if occasion arose.

Probably the engineers of the Egyptian rising will prove to have been notorious nationalist agitators like Sheikh Abdul Aziz Shawish. a Tunisian Who was at one timo assistant professor of Arabic at Oxford. Shawish used to control a seditious journal in Egypt, and,he and a confederate, Farid, had to fleo to Constantinople to escape prosecution for treason. In Constantinople Shawish got into touch with the Committee of Union and Progress, at* tached himself to Talaat and Enver, and, obtaining plenty of funds from them, established a nationalist journal, which circulated secretly in Egypt. The movement thereafter was organised from Constantinople, but there were active agents In Cairo and Alexandria, negotiations were opened with the Senussists, and help was sought from tho Germans, as the confessions of the German lieutenant, Mors, arres,ted nt Alexandria at the end of 1914, made Very clear. It is not very easy and perhaps it would not be Very profitable to follow otit the activities of the various anti-British agencies, including Enver's notorious Arab Bureau, but it seems safe to assume that the present risirt* Was plotted in Constantinople and that it was managed in Egypt by tho placemen, court parasites and corrupt officials, Who lost their jobs when the British protectorate was declared.

The dispute between Italy and the Jugo-Slav committees concerning the future of Fiume is part and parcel of the general controversy concerning the allocation of Adriatic coast lands, but there are special reasons why both groups Bhould be .anxious to control the port The city itself' contains some 24 000 Italians. 15,000 Croats or Southern Slavs, 6000 Magyars and t 3OOO inhabitants of nationalities, The industrial subiJa of Sushak, which is

separated from Fiumo by a narrow Btream about as wide as Chancery Lane, contains some 13,000 inhabitants, of whom nearly 12,000 are Southern Jjlav, or, to be precise, Croats and Slovenes. While Fiume was an autonomous city under Hungary, the Magyars, hopelessly outnumbered, had to favour one or the other of the most numerous sections of the inhabitants — the Italians or the Croats. Their choice fell on the former, whoso numbers in-' creased and who maintained supremacy in the administration of the city until, shortly before tho war, tho Magyars felt strong enough to begin a process of Magyarisation. For nearly fifty years Magyars and Italians were united by a common desire to prevent any extension of the political or municipal franchise in favour of the Slavs. Fiume, as distinguished from Sushak. became in appearance a Magyar-Italian city, while, in reality, the bulk of .the shipping which used tho harbour, on which the Budapest Government expended millions, was owned and manned by Croats.

A correspondent of " Tho Times" has explained the importance of the present dispute. The position, ho says, seems to be that though Fiume is not assigned to Italy by the secret Treaty of London, it is now claimed as Italian by Italian political writers, because it, without Sushak, is inhabited by a majority of Italian-speaking inhabitants. The Croats, and, on their behalf, the new Sorb-Croat-Slovene Government claim Fiume as a Southern Slav port on tho ground that it is historically Croatian; that, with the inseparable suburb of Sushak, it is inhabited by a majority of Southern Slavs; and that it is tho only outlet at present available for Serbian and Southern Slav traffic towards the sea. In fact, tho only normal-gauge railways that connect the Eastern Adriatic with Central and South-Eastern Europe run from Fiumo and Trieste. Tho weight of evidence, on this showing, suggests that Italy, which is bound to secure great advantages on the eastern side of the Adriatic, ought to leave Fiume to tho Jugo-Slavs, especially as she stands to control Trieste and,' presumably, Pola.