WARSHIPS BOUND FOR EGYPT.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18622, 18 July 1930, Page 9

WARSHIPS BOUND FOR EGYPT.

Straight Hint To Wafd. 4 / HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR PROTECTION. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, July 16. In the House of Commons, Mr Macdonald said that in view of the menace to foreign life and property in Alexandria two warships had been ordered to that theatre. These were the Queen Elizabeth and the Ramillies. He added that the High Commissioner in Egypt, in view of yesterday’s events, had informed Nahas Pasha that he would be held responsible with the Egyptian Government for the protection of foreign lives and property.

REVISED CASUALTY LIST. ITALIAN PROTEST VOICED. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright CAIRO, July 16. It is officially announced that the casualties in the Alexandria riots included one European and 13 natives killed, and eight Europeans and 113 natives injured. The Italian Consul has protested against the death of an Italian from heart failure, after a blow on the head.

ATTACK ON KING FUAD. LABOUR JOURNAL’S ALLEGATIONS. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright ((Received July 17, 10.30 p.m.) LONDON. July 17. The “Daily Herald” (Labour) has a remarkable attack on King Fuad, whom it calls “this Fuad." The paper says that he has consistently plotted against Parliamentary Government, and tried in every underhand way to destroy the chances of a friendly settlement between Britain and Egypt. The British Government will, however, safeguard the lives and property of foreigners, but it will not allow either force or influence to be used in support of the king against the people. A message from Alexandria reports that several members of the Wafd Committee have been arrested pending an inquiry into the disturbances. The mob to-day stoned the hospital, in consequence of the authorities’ refusal to allow the removal of the corpses of those killed in the riot, for public burial.

WAFD’S BID FOR POWER. FRUSTRATED AT ALL POINTS. In their endeavour to secure still greater power in Egypt, the Wafd Party, of whom Nahas Pasha is leader, tried to force upon King Fuad Bills which would have seriously circumscribed his powers and widened theirs. Upon the King’s refusal to sign the Bills, Nahas Pasha and his Cabinet resigned. All this happened a month ago. Since then Nahas has been campaigning through the country and attacking the King and the present Cabinet. This has resulted in outbreaks of violence at Mansourah, Bilbeis and Alexandria. That in short is the history of recent events forming the immediate cause of the trouble in Egypt. The assassination in the streets of Cairo of Sir Lee Stack, Governor-Gen-eral of the Soudan, and Sirdar of the Egyptian army, in November. 1924, produced a grave crisis. Parliamentary trouble followed, marked by the growing power of the Wafd Party (extreme Nationalists), whose leader was Zaghoul Pasha, until his death in 1927. The British Government protested against two Bills presented to the Parliament which they held would weaken the administrative authorities responsible for the maintenance of order, and for the protection of life and property in Egypt. Under pressure of an ultimatum, backed by the ordering of five warships to Egyptian waters, the Government postponed the Bills. A scandal arose regarding the members of the Coalit Cabinet, and Mohammed Pasha Mahmoud, a graduate of Oxford, and a member of the Wafd Party, was made Prime Minister. The new Cabinet was far from commanding a majority in Parliament. By Royal decree on July 19. the King dissolved the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, and suspended Parliament and the elections for three years. Legislation was by decree. The Government throughout maintained complete control of the Egyptian Army and the police. During the visit of King Faud and the Premier, Mahmoud Pasha! to England in the summer of 1929, a new treaty was negotiated with the Foreign Secretary. Mr Henderson, the draft of which was made public on August 6. It provides for the termination of the British military occupation and the withdrawal of the troops to the Suez Canal for jits military protection solely, as soon as Egypt builds barracks there. Great Britain pledges its support when Egypt applies for admission to the League of Nations. Mutual support in foreign policy is pledged by the two Governments with automatic alliance in time of war. Egypt pledges herself to the protection of foreigners, to employ British instructors for her army, and British financial and judicial advisers should she need any foreign officials. Great Britain yields capitulatory rights and agrees that her subjects shall come within the juris-

diction of the international mixed courts. Lord Lloyd, the British High Commissioner, who was out of sympathy with the Governor, resigned his post and Sir Percy Loraine was appointed to succeed him. Situation Reviewed. The Prime Minister in the House of Commons was asked by the leader o* the Opposition if he could make a statement regarding Egypt. He said: ‘As early as June 4, when the present constitutional crisis in Egypt first showed signs of developing, his Majesty’s Government instructed the High Commissioner that his attitude must be one of strict neutiality, though consistently with that position it was left to his discretion to remind both parties to the dispute that we at this end were doing all in our power to maintain the good atmosphere iri which the Treaty negotiations had terminated.

“Sir Percy Loraine made statements in this sense both to the King and to Nahas Pasha, who expressed his gratification. Since the formation of the present Government, Sir Percy Loraine has made it clear that his Majesty's Government intended to adhere to their attitude of neutrality and nonintervention in what appeared to them to be a purely internal issue for the Egyptians themselves lo decide. No other attitude was possible, consistent with the declared intention of his Majesty’s Government in 1922. and we shall continue to maintain it to any extent compatible with our international responsibilities. “Before the news of the deplorable events in Alexandria had reached London, the High Commissioner had been instructed to make it quite plain that his Majesty’s Government did not intend to be used as an instrument for attack on the Egyptian Constitution. In consequence they could be no party to an alteration to the electoral law, even if precluded by their declaration in 1922 from p.rtual intervention in an internal issue of this nature.”