EGYPTIAN LABOUR TROUBLES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 37, 7 November 1919, Page 5

EGYPTIAN LABOUR TROUBLES

A POLITICAL AGITATION THE STRiKG AS A WEAPON (From a Correspondent of the "Morning ' Post.") _ Cairo, August 1". Egypt can hardly, perhaps, hope io ;escape Labour unrest.-Ismail fifty year.-; | aga _ coined the phrase: Nous fainoiis \ partis de l'Kiirope, and in the last hall , century iiiuch water has flowed beneath • ICiisr el Nil Hiidge. True, Ihe Egyptian . type is a stubborn one. and doe? not J olirtng-o. Kvcn Rome failed to convert ; him. Doubtle?:, therefore, the Euroj pea'i characteristics which are to the I fore to-day are only so much veneer; j later on it will easily come off, and the j immemorial Egvpt'an be true to iiiiiifel!', | neither of Europe, Asia, nor Africa. a I race apart, mistrusting and mistrust™. : Hut ;n the meantime we have a Lab- ; our question. The extremists, after tl}eir abortive effort of the spring, rca/ 1 i-cd that the.v must readjust their me- | thods. Violence and murder had failed, j Their hopes in the Paris Conference, I which at one time lvere indistinguishable i fiom the prol'oundest conviction, wen ; iittle by little destroyed. I New weapons had therefore to be forged in the fight against Government and authority. Already in the disorders of March, the strike of the Cairc tramwaymen and the rfiflwaymen hat been a_ contributing cause to the general upheaval. Now it was decided tc elaborate this method, but not to accompany it with any outbreak of violence, The. whole business of the country should be brought to a standstill, the Government one again discredited and, when this was done—why, in an Oriental country like Egypt. with an excitable ignorant, and densely-packed population anything might happen. That plan had been maturing for th< last threo months, and its execution wai bosun about a fortnight ago with i strike of the Alexandria stevedores. A 1 ready well paid—for they were gettini fivfe shillings a day—they asked for «' hundred per cent, increase. The de mand was exaggerated. But the men "advised" by Egyptian lawyers, re fused to listen to compromise. Surges tions were made by the English shipoer, to import other labourer?, but the Gov eminent was anathetic. and after th j whole business of the port had been hell lup fpr over a week, the men we,re givei ■an inorease to P.T.4(1 a. day. This con cession had a disastrous effect on thi whole Labour market. Crop of Syndicates. Already thero had been a feverisl movement to "syndicalise." Svndicatesi trade unions would be a misleading translation—sorting |lation—sorting up in ."very direction. . I'ourso du Travail was inaugurated ii Cairo, whicfc at once began issuing manj fesfcos in the name of Labour, sometime of a distinctly defiant nature, and to th superficial observer it would have aj pearod that Labour in Egypt, liithprt inefficient and backward, had at on : bound achieved what it; had taken a cer ; tury to gain in England. Demands fo a ?. o'sM-hour day were put forward 01 ; all sines; the "English week," thong' | being English it should have been sti? pect, became the popular cry, and on al sides the workers "downed tools." In us in Cairo Ave have a. tramwa strike, an omnibus strike, a waiter; 6 ii e> ? n< ' a cigarette makers' strike. I Alexandria they have a baker?' strike a haircutlers' strike, a warehousemen 1 a P a, 'tinl railwajmen's strike the thrsafe of further strikes are to numerous to mention. But the electri cians the water company's employee* and tlie railwaymen are all on the ver" of comine out. And the Bourse du Tr'ii vail is talking of calling a general strik workers.

I said that to tho superficial observer tins might Appear to bo an economic and industrial movement of no particular signmcanee. In reality it is of tlie sort. It is a political agitaiiion intended to destroy the authority of the Government by holding up the commercial life of the country, and in tlho larger towns threatening such elementary necessities of society as wnler and bread". The wor!;e:s in all the morn developed industries! nave already received very lars'e inereases of wages, amounting in Varlioally all instances to GO per ccnt. on their pre-war pay. That _ their grievances' are not of an economic nature is shown bv the present tramway strike. The men c«ime out on a small poi,nt connected with their grnliuity 011 discharge. The company s board of directors in Brussels were nlone competent lo decide on such a point, and the local manager in Cairo had not received instructions. it was an obvious ease for negotiation. . Instead of that the men, urged by the Egyptian lawyers, who liavo been acting for them, issued an ultimatum. As a result the trams have now been idlo for eight dnvs. The company quite rightly wants'to know why it should be obliged to settle questions between itself yand its employees' union tliroii;rh_ Ihe intermediary of some third pait.v willi which that union has nothing to do The Men's "Advisers." liic Question becomes still more pertinent when one knows that these lawyers. who now are the "spokesmen" of th'i proletariat, are professdd and undisguised extremists. Anyone who knows iigypt is awaro that the lawyer- class want power, not to benefit the workers, in whom they have never hitherto shown the slightest interest, but to benelit themselves. The report of the Industrial i.ommission of two years aflo gave some shameful instances of sweating, but they were all by Egyptian employers. All Lgyptian will alwnys rather work in the service of a European if he gets the chance. A situation under the Cairo Tramways is, much sought after. But l ie bgvptian workers are like sheep; thev follow anyone who shouts loud enough, and a few ardent spirits can easily intimidate a crowd. One does not want to exaggerate the seriousness of the situation. Egypt will fov_ many years, perhaps for ever, remain an agricultural" country, and amongst even sir.-aJI cultivators Syndicalism can nover take root. But, on the other hand. Cairo, and Alexandria are great modern cities. Feeling there 6ets tho tone for the country, and movements against the Government starting in Cairo may easily spread to the peasantry. At oresent we ire faced with a r&pidly growing Syndicalist organisation controlled by Egyptian lawyers, who are assisted bv Italian and Grook Anarchists ano undesirables, and openly backed by the French dnily paper the '"Journal du Oaire." Something clearly will have to l>'i done. So fur the Government has been silent.