ZAGHUL'S POLICY.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16813, 3 June 1926, Page 13

ZAGHUL'S POLICY.

POLITICAL CLOUDS IN EGYPT. Sir Robert Home, addressing his constituents at Glasgow a couple of months ago, said lie had just returned from Egypt, n. country which, as the result of British administration, was now enjoying a period of regeneration and prosperity. Measured by its financial conditions Egypt to-day was one of the most prosperous countries in the world. She had an exuberant surplus on lier Budget, and all her people were employed under conditions of freedom and pay such as they had never known in the past. The irrigation works which had been carried out by the British Administration had added millions of acres to the cultivated soil and increased its value bytens of millions In pounds sterling. So witii the Sudan. In the Sudan, as in Egypt, though necessarily not to the same extent, the prosperity of the people had become a matter of salisfacton and congratulation.

One might have hoped that a country so favoured as Egypt would have been in such a condition of peace as would have relieved England from all enxiety with regard to her government. Unfortunately this was not the case. There was stili an element there which was a fruitful source of disturbance, and which would compel us for a long time to watch with great care, and perhaps even with considerable apprehension, the course of political movements.

"A new election," Sir Robert proceeded, "is to take place in two months time (it took place last week), but nobody who has any knowledge of the facts has any belief that it will result in anything hut another electoral triumph for Zaghlul. His policy is notorious. It embraces the extrusion of our influence in Egypt, complete freedom of action for Egypt without shape or form, and the acquisition of check or interference from us in any the Sudan for Egypt. It is a programme which will be constantly urged. Matters appear quiet for the moment, but it would he idle to disguise from ourselves that the conditions of trouble still exist. "There is a weakness at home from which I hope we may not have to suffer. Mr Ramsay MacDonald, when Prime Minister, rejected Zaghlul's inordinate claims. I do not doubt that he would maintain a similar front in the future, but there arc many members of his party who have expressed themselves in a very different sense, and who would, if they had their will, be inclined to destroy all that we have built up in Egypt during (lie last 40 years. That type of opinion we should resist with all our force. If it prevailed it would not only undermine our strength and power in the world, with injurious effects to our commercial and industrial life, but it would also be disastrous to Egypt. We must hope and believe that as time passes even those in Egypt who arc hostile to us at present will come to realise how much Egypt depends upon us for all that she is and can be, and will bo ready to make with us those friendly arrangements which are essential to her future progress and prosperity."