KING FOROUK

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3771, 19 June 1936, Page 9

KING FOROUK

THE 16-YEAR-OLD PHARAOH GRAVE PROBLEMS IN EGYPT (By H.G.G.) King Forouk, the 16-year-old boyKing of Egypt, will ascend the modem equivalent of the ancient throne of the Pharaohs to face heavy responsibilities for so young a ruler. At no more crucial time in the history of that troubled land could the death have occurred of his father, King Fuad, who was a loyal supporter of British interests in Egypt, interests which, because of the importance of the Suez Canal, tend to grow greater every year. One result of King Fuad’s death has been the postponement of another conference of Egyption and British representatives for a modification of the reservations to Egyptian independence, already postponed till after the local elections. Events in Egypt will be watched with interest to see whether the late King’s untimely death and the voice of the Egyptian elector will further unsettle Anglo-Egyptian relations and strengthen the hand of the Wafd party. The international situation has much in it of unsettled character. The dramatic success of Mussolini’s army in Abyssinia, threatening Lake Tsana, source of the Nile, life and soul of Egypt, and of more distant threat to the Sudan, will bring fresh complications to these discussions, being unusually exposed to attack, and an active element in the balance of world peace in the Mediterranean, Egypt will need British protection. Egypt, too, is an essential in the Empire’s air and sea route to Australia, India and other parts of the Empire. That the close association maintained between Britain and Egypt for more than half a century should by continued is therefore vital to the interests of both. The linking up of the scattered possessions in Affrica during the present century has done much to greatly increase their political and economic significance. By the reciprocal agreement of 1904 between France and Great Britain, England withdrew from Morocco and France from Egypt. The world war left France and Great Britain as the two great African powers. Great Britain began to take an interest in Egypt when Napoleon I, struck i.at her eastern communications by way of the Nile Delta. When Napoleon 111. built a canal through the isthmus of Suez, the bankruptcy of the Egyptian Khedive presented an opportunity for buying a controlling interest in the canal. Later a military occupation was necessary for its protection. The advice of the British was accepted by the Egyptian Government. But Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire, and the British were there nominally as officials of the Khedive and of his overlord, the Sultan-Caliph. They observed the formalities of the Ottoman regime, risking sunstroke by wearing the fez, and ridicule by adding the Turkish title “Pasha” to their incongrously English names. In 1914, when war was declared between Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire, it became impossible to continue in this way. So a proclamation of December 19, announced that Egypt is placed under the protection of His Majesty, and will henceforth constitute a British protectorate.” The years from then on have been years of open and secret agitation, sabotage, and occasionally even bloodshed against the British, chiefly engineered by those Egyptians who regarded their title to manage their own affairs to be even stronger than that of Syria, Mesopotamia or Arabia, where an independent kingdom had already been established. They were led, up to his death in 1927, by leader, Zaghlul, who formed the Wiafd party. Conservative opinion in England was somewhat modified as the result of the report of Lord Milner, who was sent out with a commission in December 1919, to report on conditions in Egypt. His impression was that nothing would placate the Egyptians but the termination of the British protectorate. The British Government laid down the terms of a new relationship with Egypt in a oeclaration of 28th February, 1922, which declared Egypt to be an independent sovereign State. It was one thing, however, for Britain to agree to remove the protectorate and quite another thing for her to allow Egypt unconditional independence. The British reservations to the sovereignty granted in 1922 limited that sovereignty. Britain remained responsible for (a) the security of the communications of the British Empire in Egypt; (b) the defence of Egypt against foreign aggression, direct or indirect; (c) the protection of foreign residents and the protection of minorities in Egypt; (d) the defence of the Sudan. Further, a permanent British garrison is stationed in Egypt, and the British High Commissioner advises the Government in all matters affecting British and foreign interests; and British officials direct the Egyptian army, police and various Government departments. The political history of Egypt since 1922 has been one long struggle to come to an agreement with Great Britain on these four reserved points. A great deal depended on the personality of the Wafd leader, Zaghlul,

who was the idol of the Egyptians. Probably no one in post-war Egypt has had a fraction of Zaghlul’s popularity. On his return from his second exile Zaghlul became Prime Minister of the new Egyptian Parliament with a strong majority behind him. If British diplomatists could have made him see their point of view the Egyptian problem would have been solved, but they were unsuccessful. Egyptian nationalism, passing beyond the control of its leader, expressed itself in a series of political assassinations, until a climax was reached in 1924, when Sir Lee Stack, Commander in Chief of the Egyptian Army and Governor-General of the Sudan, was assassinated in Cairo. Zaghlul was forced to resign and King Fuad took the strong line and suspended the constitution. When, after the constitution had been restored, the general election of 1926 returned a huge Wafd majority the new High Commissioner, Lord Lloyd, very wisely objected to Zaghlul’s becoming Prime Minister. He stood down, but remained a most influential man in the country up to his death in 1927 in his sixty-seventh year. Zaghlul’s death, however, did not bring an understanding with Great Britain any nearer. In 1930 the MacDonald Labour Government agreed to a restriction of the British Garrison to the canal zone, but the Italian attack on 'Abyssinia and their claim to Lake Tsana revealed the reasonableness of British represenations that defence of that' zone cannot be dissociated from defence of the Nile Delta, which the canal zone depends upon for water, food and labour. The treaty also provided for the Sudani to be under the joint rule of the two powers, the office of the High Commissioner was to be abolished and Egypt was to be allowed to officer her own army provided that Great Britain might use Egypt as a base in case of war. The Egyptian Parliament (rejected the treaty 1 ; 1 it did not go far enough. So King Fuad took advantage of British favour to suspend Parliament. From 1930 Fuad’s friend, Ismail Sidky, ruled Egypt as a dictator. The movement for democratic self-govern-ment, which rose with the post-war prosperity was not able to survive the economic slump. The post-war cotton boom brought fabulous riches in Egypt. Land soared in value and between 1916 and 1920 the price of cotton rose by almost a thousand per cent. For ten years Egyptians had money to burn and the torches of political reform flared high. Then came the slump in prices, and Egypt resorted to a dictatorship to guide her through the dark years. To-day the Egyptian question is still unsettled. In the post-war years a nation has been bom but is not able to stand on its feet. How will the new King face these problems? Only the future (or the Sphinx) can answer.