THE EGYPTIAN SITUATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19124, 19 March 1924, Page 6

THE EGYPTIAN SITUATION.

The meeting of the first Parliament of an independent Egypt is an international event of distinct importance. Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s expression of trust that Egypt is now at tho start of an era of happiness and prosperity will bo echoed throughout the civilised world, though absolute confidence can hardly form part of this edifying sentiment. The government of the country is virtually in the hands of a politician whose past history and present credentials hardly invito implicit faith in his future. Evidently, however, there is a disposition to make the best of things,. • that is to say on the part of tho British occupying authorities, —and it cannot be disputed that tho overwhelming majority by which Saad Pasha Zaghlul won tho elections in January gave him an impregnable status for the time being. There is still much difference of opinion regarding the wisdom of British policy in agreeing to a settlement which was fraught with possibilities alike of peril and of promise; but, tho concession having once been made, retrospective doubts or criticisms would be futile. After the recent elections The Times renyiykcd ; “ Zaghlul Pasha has no rivals now. Egypt is independent, British intervention is reduced to tho minimum consistent with the external security of the new State, and the extent of British influence in Egypt is a matter for negotiation and agreement with the independent Egyptian Government.” On January Id King George welcomed an Egyptian Minister in London, and at about the same time Egypt sent diplomatic representatives to Paris, Rome, and Washington. The congratulations which the British Sovereign and his Prim© Minister have forwarded to

Cairo this week are not, therefore, a novel gesture. Rather do they represent an earnest hope that Zaghlul Pasha and his new Parliament will successfully cope with the difficult task of maintaining order and furthering progress in a country whose comparative prosperity is mainly due to British supervision and activity. It is no secret that Zaghlul is strongly, not to say malignantly anti-British. It is his nationalist extremism that has created his tremendous vogue, and though in the hour of triumph he may affect a conciliatory temper it might not be safe to rely upon his cosmopolitan amicability. Still, it must he hoped that the prolonged and complicated relations between Great Britain and Egypt—in which Britain has played a consistently unselfish part — have no unpleasant developments in store.