RIOTING AT CAIRO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19892, 10 March 1928, Page 11

RIOTING AT CAIRO.

STUDENTS STONE POLICE.

MANY PERSONS INJURED.

POLITICAL CRISIS ACUTE.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. A. and N.Z.-Sun. CAIRO. March 8,

Serious rioting by students occurred to-day in Cairo. Thirty of the latter and eight police were injured. A mob of 1500 students stoned the police from the headquarters of the Wafd Party, y where they had taken refuge when the police scattered them with heavy sticks.

The officers of the law wore tin helmets and carried shields. Nahas Pasha, leader of the Wafd Party, appealed to the demonstrators to return to their homes, and most of them did so. The students at the Sheiks' School, at Assiut, attacked the American College because the students at the latter refused to strike.

The mob smashed the gates and tore up trees. Several persons were injured, including the principal, Dr. Russell. Other rioters burned three motor-cars at Tant.ah, including that of the Egyptian Commandant, who was also severely handled.

King Fuad has summoned Nahas Pasha to the Palace, but., as the Wafd Party no longer desires Nahas to take the reins of Government, it is believed the only solution of the problem is the dissolution of Parliament.

REJECTED TREATY.

ENGLISH PRESS COMMENT.

EMPIRE INTERESTS WAIVED.

(British Official Wireless.) A. and N.Z. RUGBY. March 8

In commenting upon the proposed Anglo-Egyptian treaty, which the Government of Egypt rejected, and upon the correspondence . published with it, the Times expresses the view that the extreme element of the Wafd Party has rejected a very good offer, only through their inability to recognise the hard reality of political geography. It remarks that the rejection of a treaty whiqh would have resulted in a new division of responsibilities, throws the British Government back to its former position. .

The proposed changps in Egyptian law affecting public assemblies, which would have made it harder for the police to prevent the degeneration of public meetings into riots, were no doubt in the mind of the Foreign Secretary, says the paper, when he prepared his latest Note. That Note should be interpreted generally as a courteous warning,, that the British Government realises its position, and will permit no prerogation of its responsibility for peace and order in Egypt. The leaders of the Wafd may object to the communication, but they should remember that it was the inevitable result of their own action.

The Morning Post remarks that it does not regret the rejection of the treaty. It likes least the proposed intrusion o£ the League of Nations upon the Egyptian scene. The British Foreign Secretary, iu his infatuation for Geneva, was willing to lay the vital communications of the British Empire at the hazard of reference to the League. Fortunately, says the paper, Sarwat Pasha and his friends do not share Sir Austen Chamberlain's enthusiasm.

If the Wafd had possessed more guile it would have accepted the treaty and its conditions in the confident hope that some future Council of the League might make trouble for the Empire in Egypt. The Dajly Telegraph describes the failure of the treaty proposal as. a political tragedy, and the intervention of blind destructive forces to wreck the work of a good and honourable intention.