Untitled

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 18066, 5 April 1919, Page 8

A brief survey of tho recent course of the Nationalist agitation in Egypt is given in a Reuter message to Australian newspapers. In November a deputation of Nationalists, headed by Saad Pasha and Zazlul, two of the Ministers, called at the British Residency to present the demands of their party. In effect they demanded complete autonomy, leaving Britain only tho supervision of tho public debt andJ certain rights in regard to the Sue® Canal. They further demandod that they should be allowed to proceed to London to present their claims there. Simultaneously a Nationalist agitation was set on foot under a oommittee of fourteen malcontents. Tho Imperial Government replied that while sympathising with the idea of giving Egyptians an increasing share in the government of the country, it could not abandon its responsibility for tho order and good government of Egypt, and for tho safeguarding of the rights and interests of tile native and foreign populations. No useful purpose wouldi bo served by tho Nationalist leaders in) coining to London and advancing immediate demands which it was impossible to entertain. The visit of the two Ministers would bo very welcome, but ns the Foreign Minister would be fully occupied with Peace Conference business, the hope was expressed that the visit would bo postponed. The two Ministers forthwith resigned.

The agitations continued, and in January Sir Erancis Wingate was summoned to London to report on the situation. The attitude of the Imperial Government was conciliatory, and the two ex-Ministors were invited) to visit London in February. Thqy decided that unless the Nationalist leaders were invited at the same time the invitation would not be accepted. This course was. not acceptable to the Government. Then the Sultan endeavoured to form a new administration, but the Nationalists intervened with threats against any Egyptian accepting office and the Sultan’ b own life was threatened. Finally the Sultan appealed for protection, and Saad Pasha and Zazlul and three other Nationalist leaders were arrested and deported to Malta. The incident was fallowed by the outbreak of disturbances in Cairo and elsewhere, organised chiefly by students, and in some cases the rioters came into conflict with the troops. A few looters were shot. The messago adds that the discontent is confined to the elements of the population that have always been hostile to the British, presumably because of the activities of agents of the Turkish Government and of the exiVhedive.

A report received by “The Times” from one of its correspondents concern, ing tire Bolshevist efforts to iilfect Germany with the ideas of the Russian movement helps us to understand how the Bolshevist plot in Hungary was engineered. The activities in regard to Germany are covered in an official report issued by Otto Pertz, who is described os the head of the German.

Soviet in Petrograd. It states that Radek, the Bolshevik commissary at Berlin, had formed twenty-eight propagandist associations in Germany, with the ultimate purpose <rf penetrating “deeply into the heart of the occupied Western regions.” He had spent 11,000,000 roubles (normally £1,100,000) to January 20 in organising, and a large sum since. Porta is issuing three revolutionary papers, printed in German, which are regularly smuggled into East Prussia. A Bolshevik school has been opened in Petrograd, in which it is expected to train 10,000 German war prisoners and send them to Germany to spread tho gospel- At NijniNovgorod and Samara tho Bolsheviks have established centres whore German prisoners from Siberia are collected to form a so-called Western Communist division 20,000 strong, which is to join in an armed Bolshevik invasion of Germany, and to help propaganda. The most likely recruits, numbering 6000, have been assembled at Petrograd, and formed into a “ Liebknecht Brigade.” Tho basis of the Bolshevist method is to secure control of the government of a country, and then to force the people to support the regime, with, the alternative of starvation.

In a letter to one of his supporters at Bendigo Mr Hughes makes an interesting reference to the opening of the Peace Conference. How long the settlement will take, he says, ho cannot guess, tho estimates varying from two months to two years. “ There are spread before us a thousand most difficult problems,” ho goes on, “ Some of them, like those that relate to tho readjustment of the political boundaries of Europe, seem almost insoluble. Traditions, centuries old, racial, lingual and economical, hatred and differences, and clashing of interests, stand in the way lilco gates of triple steel; yet we must find a way through. Then there are others that come right home to ourselves—the fate off the Pacific Islands, indemnities, and economic freedom. How shall we get onP It is hard to say. One thing ia certain, that all I said by way of protest against the Versailles Council’s acceptance of President Wilson’s fourteen points proves now to have been amply justified. Instead of being able to lay down the terms of a just peace, suited to the actual circumstances and rights of the different nations, we have to lock always at these fourteen points, for we are absolutely bound by them. We must, however, do our best.”