EGYPTIAN RIOTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17113, 19 March 1919, Page 7

EGYPTIAN RIOTS.

RISING OF NATIONALISTS. TWENTY PEOPLE KILLED. A. and N.Z. C£TRO, Mar. 17. Severe riots occurred in Tanta, Egypt, yesterday, following upon the resignation of the Premier, Sir Hussein Rushdi Pasha, and the deportation of Said Pasha. Zaghoul, the leader of the Egyptian Nationalist Party, and two other Ministers. Several thousand rioters attacked the railway station, and troops had to be called out to restore order. Twenty peode were killed in the fighting which ensued.

WAVE OF NATIONALISM. The resignation of Sir Hussein Rishdi Pasha, Prime Minister of Egypt, is not of recent date. It was tendered in December, but was not at once announced. The Cairo correspondent of a London paper, commenting on the situation, recently said: — put it briefly there is a Ministerial crisis. This, it may be thought, is hardly of sufficient consequence to rank as a question of Imperial moment. Nor do I for a moment suggest that it is. But thero are certain aspects of this Ministerial crisis which are novel and well worthy of study. For the crisis has lasted now for a month, and for all one knows may be settled tomorrow or go on for another month. The Prime Minister, Sir Hussein Rushdi Pasha, an old and tried public servant, who has served three Sovereigns of Egypt in the highest capacity to which an Egyptian can attain, sent in his resignation to the Sultan on December 5. This, after a recent interval, was discreetly announced in the local papers. So far there was nothing to mark it from any other Ministerial crisis. The difference only became apparent when no new Premier was appointed to take his place. Nor was it announced that Sir Hussein Rushdi Pasha' 6 resignation had been accepted. Despite inspired paragraphs in the press that the crisis is about to be settled, it still remains a fact that the Premier and his ablest colleague Sir Adly Yaghen Pasha, K.C.M.G., nave tendered their resignations, that neither goes to his office, and that accordingly no Council of Ministers has met for five weeks, with the consequence that no Departmental business requiring to be sanctioned by a decree of that body can be settled. J Whv did Rushdi Pasha resign? And why 'has no successor been appointed The answer to the second question, which I give first because it is the easier, is that no one has been found willing to accept the position. Several, I understand, have been approached, but neither among the Ministers who still remain nor among the Judges or ex-Ministers has anyone consented to fill the office. For Rushdi Pasha' 6 resignation many reasons are given. I am inclined to ascribe as the real cause an attack of nerves, which dm mementarilv affected him and the class of which he is one of the most prominent members. , . Rushdi Pasha is a wry sensible man. He knows that the English are indispensable to Egypt, and that the protectorate Is the best guarantee of future progress. But there has been a wave of nationalism due to not incomprehensible causes, and Saa-d Pasha Zaghoul, the leader of the "Egvpt for the Egyptians and no one else " Party, has put forward a "comprehensive programme" which commands the enthusiastic support of the youth of Egypt. This forced the Prime Ministers hand. If he was not to forfeit the esteem of his compatriots, he had to do something to show that he too had a programme. As Saad Pasha Zaghold had suggested leading a deputation to England it occurred'to Rushdi Pasha that he would do *ho same thing. And it was actually announced in the panel's that he, Sir Adly Yaghen Pasha, and Sir William Brunvate, the Acting-Financial Adviser, ; were"proceeding on an official mission to ] London. Then something went wrong, , Rushdi Pasha wanted to go at once. Lon-! don asked him to wait until March, when there would be more time to talk things over. Rushdi Pasha felt that he could not wait, and sent to the Sultan a letter of resignation so worded as to make it difficult for any other Egyptian to take his place without incurring unpopularity.