RIOTS IN EGYPT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22318, 16 January 1936, Page 12

RIOTS IN EGYPT

THE RECENT TROUBLE PARTICIPANT'S DESCRIPTION LETTER TO NEW ZEALANDER A glimpse of "the other side" of the kind of psychology that produces riots is given in a letter received by an Invercargill girl from a 19-year-old Egyptian student in Cairo. Tho recipient of tho letter is one of a number of school girls who, through a correspondence club, have established pen friendships with young people in various foreign countries. How the students in the recent Egyptian riots were roused to their excesses and their attitude of mind arc indicated in the letter, wr.itten in a style which has a savour of its own. "I'll give the summary since this 13 November," says the writer. "I hope you still remember when I. have told you that this 13th of November will bo an annual polytic day. Tho whole students of all the faculties gathered before our faculty. Speeches were delivered hero and there and the word 'revolution' began to spread like a small piece of fire in a largo heap of hash. Speeches then again increased, and we were entirely inspired with dangerous enthusiasm. Wonderful cheers were then heard. "Catching Long Clubs"

"The students began to leave the yard of tho faculty as if they were a gigantic mass of iceberg sloping down gradually. The streets were so crowded that all vehicles stopped in their places. Our voices as strong as the thunder, our hands were in tho air catching long clubs as if wo were some nomads going to attack a caravan.

"These numerous groups increased from a whjle to a while till at last we reached Abdine Square, where there is tho King's Palace. We all shouted, 'Give back our rights. Down with England. We want our ride of 1923.' "Here I feel that my heart is broken. I feel that my tears are going to spoil the letter; but, alas, we had lost two of us as a result of our collision with the police. I'll leave 3 lines to show my mourning and my burning pain." Bullet Past Head After a blank space tho letter continues: —"Our groups were then scattered. A bullet passed very near over my head, but I cleverly escaped. However, I am sorry to write that Seif was wounded in his shoulder because a policeman had heated him with a stick. "On the 14th we assembled again in the same yard of tho University and began our revolution. We repeated everything, and the result was that we lost other sincere two. I'll leave other two lines for the same feeling." Another blank space follows and then the letter proceeds: —"On the loth there were dangerous precautions that we could not assemble again, but we began to give national funerals. Every individual had the honour of joining these funerals. Employers stopped work, Judges, lawyers, all protested and shut their offices. Newspapers were in black colour, students were all in mourning, merchants shut their shops. The whole Egypt was sad and calm. Closing of Faculty

"Our faculty is now closed for 17 days and so are the other faculties; but we assemble in fixed places without the police's knowledge. Many changes will take place nearly. Now I am free in the afternoon and so I visit my club every day whose name is 'Mosleman Association for Young Men.' "My family's salutations to yours. . With this letter, the writer enclosed a political cartoon, which he describes as a "critical picture." Drawn in a vigorous style it depicts a mild-looking Egyptian being seized by the neck and beaten with a cudgel by a brutal and ferocious policeman. Close by John Bull, not quite his usual British self, is standing between two former Prime Ministers, both disliked, and both attired as policemen, enjoying tho spectacle. From the mouth of the persecuted "John Citizen" are issuing some characters which, the correspondent explains, are an Egyptian cheer meaning "Long live tho rule of 1923!" The unpleasant policeman wielding the cudgel is none other than the unpopular Prime Minister, Nessim Pasha.