AN ARTIFICIAL CRISIS

Hokitika Guardian, 4 June 1927, Page 3

AN ARTIFICIAL CRISIS

WARSHIPS A PRECAUTION ONLY

Rl 0 BY, .May 31. Ihe British battleships Barham and

.Belaya, ordered from .Malta to Egypt

are expected to reach Alexandria early on Wednesday, and the battleship Royal Sovereign will arrive at Port Said on the same day. ILAI.S. Barham flies the flag of Vice-Admiral Kell V:

No other warships, are under orders for Egypt;

fu view of Hie present political situation in I gypt, the dispatch of these vessels wa - considered advisable as a preen ill in ai y measure, since by the declaration of 1922 Great Britain is responsible for the safety and protection of foreigners in Egypt.

The political tension there appears to be very largely artificial, the creation of the. extremist members of the Wafd, designed to strengthen their own party position. This was clearly shown last week, when, in the Egyptian Parliament. Wafd deputies made the recent visit ol Lord Lloyd (High Commissioner) to Minin the occasion for a concerted and obviously pre-arranged onslaught. Actually. Lord Lloyd was present in Minin at the invitation of 1500 loyal notables, and the occasion was marked hv expressions of mutual friendship and esteem. In Parliament the extremist deputies violently attacked those notables lor issuing the invitation to the Government officials who were present, and Lord Lloyd for his remarks, and the Chamber afterwards passed a resolution repudiating the attacks on the notables and officials concerned.

A lurthcr uncertain element in the situation is the recommendation of the Egyptian Parliamentary War Committee regarding the Egyptian Army. The delciice ol Egypt from foreign aggression i.s one of the points in the British decla rtion of 1922. British officers have hitherto managed to prevent the Army’s discipline being undermined by political unrest, and the committee’s recommendations arc undmibledly designed to make it the tool of a political party. This would make it Useless fur one nf it-, main I'niietions. namely to support I lie police in the maintenance of order, tin- disturbance of which, as was shown as recently as 1921. directly involves a threat to foreign lives and interests.

The defence of Egypt being of as much British as Egyptian interest, close collaboration between the armed forces of both countries is obviously of mutual advantage. Tbe British Government is perfectly ready to conclude an agreement to ensure such co-opera-tion.