EGYPTIAN CRIMES

Hokitika Guardian, 13 August 1926, Page 4

EGYPTIAN CRIMES

ENGLAND’S GREAT PATIENCE. (G. Ward Price, in the “Daily Mail.”) CAHIO, Juno 19. Few countries have a record of political crimes as black and ungrateful as that of Egypt. Fewer countries still would have eudured being made the victim of such crimes with the patience of Britain. Between November 1918 and November 1924 Egytpian Nationalists murdered in cold blood twenty-five British subjects, wounded ten more, and unsuccessfully attacked five others. During the last eighteen months the series has been suspended, for when the assassins emboldened by impunity killed-Sir Lee Stack, the Sirdar of the Egyptian Army and Governor-General of the Suden, the British Government was at length roused to exact from Egypt an apology and a fine of £600,000. This action would have been justified in any of the previous cases, for it was common knowledge that all the murders, which occurred at regular' intervals of about a month, were part of a deliberate campaign of political pressure upon Great Britain organised by a small group of politicians who were in close touch with Zagldul Pasha, the Nationalist leader and Premier, even if he were notin the secret of. their plans. A FALSE SUGGESTION. The story of this Murder Gang reached its climax at the beginning of the present month of June in the acquittal of several men accused of belonging to it, among them two of the most prominent and active members of Zaghlul Pasha’s last Government.

Their trial had been held under Egyptian law, without a jury, by a Mixed Tribunal consisting of two Egyptian judges with a British president, and when it was over and the accused exMinisters had left the dock to be lionised by their friends and received in special audience by their friends and received in.special audience by Zagldul the British president resigned his judgeship on the ground that he could not conscientiously take any further part in tlie work of a court which had returned a verdict so strangely in contradiction with the evidence. Egyptians, whose minds have a permanent, wave detected in this a political denionstrhtion instigated bv the British Government. That is, of

course, a totally false suggestion. Judge- Kershaw has shown by bis resignation a high sense of judicial duty which would have resisted pressure from anv quarter. MURDERERS’ FREEDOM. Tlie British Government followed up Judge'Kershaw’s personal action by a Note stating its dissatisfaction with (he verdict in the murder ease and hinting that for any future crimes against foreigners in Egypt it will insist, as the. protector of foreign interests, upon trial by a more important tribunal. But whatever may happen next time it is a fact that at the present moment most,,of the murderers of .the dead Britons are walking the streets of Cairo with complete freedom and increased self-esteem. Seven Egyptians only have . been executed for the twenty-five .murders and fifteen attempted murders .which is the. .known record of the.. Nationalist assassination league. From the confession of these, a lawyer named Sliafik Mansonr, who was a leader among them, we know that, the Murder Gang was first founded by him as far hack as 1909. On March 1 lie and some more young: Egyptians, formed themselves into a “ Fraternal Co-operation Society ” for “direct” political action. From their very first attempt they aimed high, for they killed Boutros Pasha, who was then Prime Minister, and though Ulansour and several others were tried for it they all got off for lack of evidence. >OLrriCAL ASSASSINS.

Mnnsour left Egypt to study law in Europe after this first coup and did not return till 1915. He revived his murder club..forthwith, and organised an unsuecesful attempt on the life of the Egyptian Sultan Hussein. This led to his exile lo Malta, but he came hack in 1919 to form the gang of political assassins which has been responsible for all the murders of British subjects which have taken place since then. i In bis confession Mnnsour named as directing members of bis organisation tlie two ex-Mi 11 istefs of Zagldul Pasha’s Cabinet who have just been acquitted bv the verdict that caused Judge Ker-

shaw to resign and the British Government to protest. These two men, Ahmed Maher and Nokraslii, who are stated by several witnesses to have been the main plotters, instigators and organisers of a long series of cowardly murders of British subjects, with the object of scaring the British Govern-

inont nut of Egypt, are at presen' being feted in Cairo by tbo Nationalist Pa rty.

Ahmed Halier, with a Znghhilist Minister and several leading Nationalist deputies and senators, sat smiling, a corpulent little man, at tlie next

dining-table to my own on tbe terrace of the Hotel Continental a few nights ago. Both lie and Nokrasbi are about to return to Parliament, seals being vacated for them by obedient Zaglilulist members, and it is quite likely, if the British Government does not firmly forbid such open insult, that they will bo promoted once more to posts in tbo Government.

Jn half a dor.cn separate murders of Englishmen in Cairo automatic pistol bullets of calibre .45 had been used. When an automatic pistol is fired it ejects the case of every spent cartridge. Yet never were empty cartidge-cases found afterwards at tbe places where the murders had been committed. Tbe presumption, therefore, was that tbe bullets, though made for use in automatics, bad been fired from a revolver.

Several of the criminals convicted in the Sirdar’s ease had admitted acquaintance with a grey-bearded old man named El flag Ahmed Gadalln. This man’s house was searched and nothing found. But outside it was a blind alley, one of those squalid lanes common in the native parts of Cairo. Hag Abmed used it to keep a fowlhouse there, and in an obscure corner lay a casual-looking heap of dust. Into this a police officer thrust bis stick and immediately discovered a clumsily made wooden box which was found to contain not only automatic ammunition and a bomb but a .45 Weblcy revolver of the type that the police had for years believed to have been regularly used in tbe murders.

<- ACQUITTED. Dr Sydney Smith, the Principal Medico-Legal Expert in the Egyptian Government Service, liad already proved in the Sirdar murder trial how any individual pistol marks its own peculiar characteristics upon bullets fired from it. and he was able to guarantee to the court that the AVebley revolver out of Hag Ahmed’s dust heap had killed a whole series of British subjects.

The Egyptian judges of the court refused to accept this as conclusive, and, outvoting Judge Kershaw, their president, they acquitted Hag Ahmed, like the two ex-M misters, on the ground that the revolver might have been deliberately planted in the dust heap by the police, who are commanded by British officers.

The tardy vigour of our actioii after the Sirdar’s death is likely to discourage the Nationalist Murder Gang from immediately resuming its operations upon British subjects. They, will begin by indirect pressure, taking as their victim any Egyptian politician they can accuse of a friendly disposition . towards England. One thing only will prevent the, renewal of this foul campaign of assassination. It is that Zaghlul and his Nationalists should be given clearly to understand that the next political murder means the instant end ol that rash unilateral grant of independence we made to Egypt in February 1922. It is certain, as the British Government has formally declared in a King s Speech from the Throne, that Zaghlul s inflammatory speeches have helped to bring about these murders, and it is equallv certain that lie could stop them with a, single word. VITAL BRITISH INTERESTS.

Although Zaghlul is already talking of strengthening the Constitution, we bestowed on Egypt, the Eyptian nation as a matter of fact, has never yet accepted it. and the Egyptian Parliament has always refused to discuss the extremely important Four Reserved Subjects which represents the vital British interests in Egypt. There are signs that the even the Liberal Constitutional Ministers who, as puppets of Zaghlul, now hold nominal power have secret plans for turning our flank in such matters as British control of the Sue/, Canal and British authority in the Sudan. But the ace of trumps is in our hands if we have the decision to play it. What we gave we can take away, especially since it has never been formally accepted but only persistently abused. Egypt is manifestly unfit for self-government. The utmost it is safe to allow her- is a nominal and complimentary independence such as the Prince of Monaco enjoys under the protection of the French Government.

The confused conditions ' at present existing between Britain and Egypt can never he anything but a source of trouble. If Egyptians are indulged in their illusion that they are a civilised nation capable of sclL-nd-ministration, they will never be content until they have got rid of. the British, to whom they owe everything of value in their country. And. we shall never consent to go. for to do so would hamstring the British Empire. It is time we got hack to firmer ground, and that process, if.it is followed, could he in no better hands than those,,of the new High .Commissioner in Egypt- Lord Lloyd shoved in the recent, crisis, over.,. Zaghlul’s candidature foy the Premiership, just .that combination of strength and thphjgjacy which is in,-the best British Imperial tradition. Whc.u the next crisis ponies —and it may . be expected before .this year is out—and it is to he hoped that Ibe British Government .will, .give him full confidence and a free hand.