The Dominion TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 1919. THE NATIONALIST OUTLOOK IN EGYPT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 154, 25 March 1919, Page 6

The Dominion TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 1919. THE NATIONALIST OUTLOOK IN EGYPT

The news from Egypt of a Nationalist rising, accompanied by attacks on the telegraph, telephone, and railway systems, by terrible excesses on British communities, and by the murder of British officers, discloses a situation that can only be viewed with deep concern. It is deplorable that when the greatest Peace Congress tho world ever saw is sitting to dispense justice to the war criminals that turned the world into Armageddon, and to right the wrongs of "downtrodden races on the lines of nationality and selfgovernment, that this outburst of crime and lawlessness should have taken place in a land and among a people for whom Britain has done so much. Britain is in Egypt not as a despot, but as a deliverer, and she stands pledged to give selfgovernment when tho people are ready for it. The action of the criminal leaders in the present outbreak simply means delay to the reform they are trying by the Potsdam plan of "blood and "iron" to hasten. General Allenby has at his call unlimited military force, and it may be expected that this rising will speedily be crushed, and he will without doubt temper judgment with mercy in bringing peace and order to the disturbed communities. There is one good feature in this bad business, and that is that it has taken place after the defeat of Germany. Before the war and all through the war Germany schemed to smite Britain in Egypt, and leave the British Indian Empire suspended in the air. There was nothing original in such a plan. A writer in the Edinburgh Review made a remark to the effect that history does not often repeat itself, but it seems sometimes to plagiarize its own creations. The Pan-German plot to use Turkey to stab Britain in Egypt and thus destroy her oversea Empire was simply a copy of the scheming Napoleon when he was First Consul more than a t hundred years ago. He planned an insurrection in Ireland and the capture ol Egypt. In Egypt he was hoist with his own petard, and tho would-be conqueror returned to France baffled and- defeated, and victory and honour came to British arms.. The Potsdam War Lords forced Turkey into the war to carry out Napoleon's plot that failed, and Turkey's treacherous action has led to her undoing and ruin, and she may be as a ruling Power sent "bag and ba/rgugc" out of Europe. When the full light of day shines on this outbreak it will likely be seen that behind it were German and Bolshevik plotters, and theaim was rather to destroy British prestige than to further the cause of Egyptian Nationalism. Regrettable as this outbreak is, compared with former menaces to British power in Egypt it may prove , only a little cloud which will soon pass away. While it. is very probable that this outbreak was in part the work of outside plotters, yet we have to recognise the fact that the atmosphere of international politics is charged with the principle of nationality. Promises have been given on the right hand and on the left' of national independence and self-government to people bound together with national affinities. Europe /will have its new Poland, its larger Bohemia, its greater Serbia. Lloyd Geokge, in his historic statement of January 5, 1918, declared that "Arabia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria, _ and Palestine would have recognition of their separate national conditions." The Nationalist leaders of Egypt very likely feel that they have been passed by in this scheme of readjustment of nationalities. But they'have only themselves _ to thank for any such discrimination. A fierce fanatical anti-British element in Egypt, who would willingly uso dagger and dynamite, have made it unsafe for Britain to grant the self-government she has promised and she desires to give. When the war broke out in August, 1914, this element, controlled by the treacherous Khedive Abbas 11, was out and out pro-German, and would have Hung themselves into the arms of Turk and Teuton to destroy Britain in Egypt and . usurp her power. But this treachery came to nought, for soldiers and people from Cairo to Khartoum rallied to the call 'of Sir Reginald Wingate, declared their loyalty to . Britain, and the wretched Abbas fled, baffled and disgraced, to Germany. Then it was that, for the sake of the people of Egypt and for the sake of Britain, a new regime was set up in Egypt. For four hundred years Egypt had been connected with Turkey, and in 1914 she was paying tribute to Turkey to the extent of nearly three-quarters of a million,pounds a year. On December 20, 1914, this connection ceased for ever, as also did the payment of tho tribute. The treacherous Abbas was deposed. Egypt was constituted a British protectorate. To the satisfaction of the Egyptians Prince Kamel was appointed Sultan, and the "capitulations," which had been a drag on the wheels of justice and progress, ceased and the question reserved till the end of the war. With this new departure • the cause of self-government and a fuller recognition of nationality might have moved more rapidly forward, but the forces that have made this outbreak make this impossible.

Britain's .burden of Empire is heavy indeed, and it would be well if it were lightened. But she cannot lay clown this Egyptian burden. It would be madness to allow an enemy Power to nil" Egypt and sit astride Britain's h'frhway to India, Australia, and Nov.-'Zealand. It would mean ruin and disaster to Effvpt itself to bo ruled bv the fanatical section of the nonulation now at work. For Britain's own sake and for tho pake of the Egyptians and the Sudanese the protecting power of our firnnire must cop'.ivni" to evinivl from Alov.indri.-i and Sue:; to Khartoum unci beyond.

"Girls get paid good wages nowadays— ni-ettv well ae good as men," remarked \h: P. V. Frazer. S.M., at the Magistrate's Court yesterday.