WHEN MR SPEAKER MET A KING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 21 May 1936, Page 10

WHEN MR SPEAKER MET A KING

HON. W. £. BARNARD AMONG CAIRO RIOTERS

“LIVES IN OUR HANDS,” COMPANION SAYS An incident of war-time, first alarming and then amusing, is told by Frank St urges liarty in t lie "Sydney Morning Herald" of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon. \Y. H. Bnrnard, who was a gunner in the Royal Field Artillery. ‘File story lreals of the demonstrations which arose when Zaghloul i’ashn. was returned to I'.gvpt by the direction of Whitehall after Lord Alleiiliy had deported him to Cyprus. The day lie arrived in Alexandria there was a genera! strike, with many disturbances, throughout Egypt. Frank Sturges liarty writes: “On the day of Zaghloul Pasha's return, although we had been ordered not to leave camp, four of us, including llie Speaker in file present- New Zealand Parliament--Mi W. F, Laniard —decided that there were sure to he ructions and the fun was too good to miss; so, in walking dress, without, any arni.s whatever, we jumped oil a train" and duly arrived at Cairo station. What we saw amazed us. 'The si reels were absolutely full of a motley crowd, which flowed along slowly like a turgid stream. Egyptians of the offendi class, with their riitl tarbooshes, rubbed shoulders with lean, brown Bedouins and blue-robed Coptic peasants. . In high spirits we pushed along with them, willy-nillv, we cared not where. Every now and then the multitude lifted, up it;; voice ill a deafening shout of ‘Yaliil Wot an !’ (the Fatherland). It was a very good-natured crowd, and in oar broken Arabic wo exchanged pleasantries with those nearest us.

IN DIFFICULTIES “At length we came into the square opposite the Esbekicli Gardens, a- favourite rendezvous of the 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 guns were also in evidence. In the gardens eye found a tense atmosphere. On all sides wo heard rumours that an armed insurrection was expected to break out. We heard, aiso, that sniping had been going on by Egyptian marksmen hidden jii°t|,e top of the minaret of a mosque overlooking Die Opera Square. As the afternoon drew on, the tension increased, and suddenly there was. a hurst of bring—the ominous chatter of machineguns. It looked as though preparations were being made to place HsboKieii Uarisens in a slate of siege. “This did not suit our plans at all, for m order to escape trouble when we got back to Zeituu we would have to he back in camp before roll-call at sunset. So wo held a council of war, and three of us decided to take the chance ui being pulled to pieces by tne excited crowd and return 10 the station. Lai - nard, myself and another, named lliii, 01 tiie Game! Corps, approached one of the gates leading out oi the gardens to make a clash across the square. It was not a very pleasant prospect, for immediately in front of us was a thill line of Britisn soldiers, and the square itself was quite empty, except for one or two pathetic bundles of rags, the unfortunate victims of the ‘incident. On the far side was the densely-packed mass of Egyptians whose procession had been interrupted by tlie shooting. Like swimmers making up their minds re take the plunge, we deliberated as to what we should do. Then, seizing what appeared to he an opportune moment, we (lashed across the square and bored into 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 passports to safety and we realised that we carried our fives in our hands. Every moment the evidence of our unpopularity became more manifest, so we felt like rats m a trap. FLAG-WAGGING WITH A PURPOSE "Just then I had a brain-wave. A little hoy was vociferously shouting Ins wares —little. -Egyptian ,flags—witn three crescents and stars. Some were quite plainly cld Turkish llags with the one crescent and star. EVeryone was waving a flag, so. 1 suggested Cat we do Hie same, the hoy was elongated to receive three or four times tne price he was asking for the hags, and as we brandished thorn enthusiastically o\ei cur heads wo yelled, Waini Wqtan. •Yaliil Wotan! : The change in. the crowd's attitude was instantaneous—it was miraculous. We received smites on every side, pats on the back and, whereas before our ruse-dc-guene we only made our way by strenuous pushing. now a path was made lor us and blessings descended on our heads. , "As we were passing an intersection - handsome black limousine was slowi"v nosing its way through the crowd, and we were carried right alongside. The occupants were obviously persons of imoortar.ee The driver was in handsome livery, topped with a tarboosh. As wo' got level with the car windows to our surprise wo recognised the: Ivbedivc, later known as King luiad. He looked at us in astonishment. Three British soldiers marching with the demonstrators against British rule and waving Egyptian flags. Then a smile came over I, is face which broadened into a grin as his flaiuhtioyunt moustache went up to his eyes, and leaning out through the window of his car lie made a gracious how and said, “Thank-you, gentlemen.

AN EASY PASSAGE “The crowd went frantic with, joy. Shouts of ‘Ya'hil Wotan !' 'Yahil Wotan !’ reverberated through' the street, and were .caught up by the multitude until we could hear them echoing in the distance. We excelled ourselves in joining hi the general acclamation, waving our flags with frantic zeal. The car moved on, and f or us the resit of the way was easy. It. was almost a triumphal process’ion. Escorted by several el'fendis, we wore taken to a cafe and regaled with Turkish coffee and takes, 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, although the train immediately preceding ours had been fired on and a, soldier shot. "This was the only occasion on wliicn T was privileged to see s monarch who. as time has proved, was playing a most, difficult part, in trying to help his friends the British without losing the loyalty and affection of his people. King Fuad had been a faithful ally to the British."