RIOTS IN CAIRO

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10290, 27 May 1919, Page 2

RIOTS IN CAIRO

HEW ZEALANDER'S STORY ACCOUNT OF FIRST OF RIOTS. The following interesting account (dated March 16th) of tho first Cairo riots has been received by Mr C. J of Temuka, fiom his eon, Ser-geant-Major F. J. Bilton, 6th Canteruury Mounted Rilßb, who is at present in tne New Zealand Records Ofiic© m Cairo: — 1 toid you in my last that I would, in aU prouuoixit,y. b« in Alexandria during tne weex, nut tile wnolo uuug wus upset ny tnio nau\e rising. Vve tried to iW uowu to-auy, but ioand it unposbiuie, nb uie train nuu ceased to run, xor ' now tong no one icnovvs, out we tmuii it iiKeiv we snarl be atue to leave to-morrow, wen, tms rising is tno oui) topic of interest, bo I nud bettei get on with it. in tho first pmee, on Saturday morning, the nth inst., five pasUas ta pasha is pruoticiUy eq.ua! to an Rugiisn icru; camo Qown to tne 0.1i.Q. 3 use opposite our offices and ufiked tor nn interview with Major-vicneral Watson, who i*> tho commander of the iorce in Rgypt* These five pashas delivered an ulti* matum to Major-General Watson to the effect that he was to get all the Ingush troops and civilian** '*ut ot fvgypt ’■mmediately, and to hand over the country to the Egyptian people. These pashas belong to the Nationalist has been antagonistic to the ±jngiish fraternity ever since they declared the country an English protectorate, and wnich has been working up. mostly by religious methods, among the h) w £ r classes of the a fanatical hate of the English. . This week the whole affair has come to a head, starting, in the first instance, by these five pashas attempting to ride the high horse with the commander. 1 understand that Watson heaid them through, and then rang his boll, when in marched a platoon with fixed bayonets, and tho pashas were immediately placed under arrest, and inside six hours were on their way to » deported and imprisoned long before their parly . time to get their breath. It was a jolly smart piece of work, and it makes me think that Watson had very good information long beforehand that this affair was likely to come to a head, and. in fact, from events whicn have happened since, it is very apparent that the j n t e f" ligerice staff at G.H*Q* know every detail of the affair. FIRST RIOTS ON MONDAY. Well, on Sunday the Gyppies got their heads together and arranged the programme tor the Monday morning. Monday morning everyone caino down to work just in the usual way. no more thinking there was going to be anything doing in the way of a riot than of jumping over the moon. In fact, it was only a lew of us at G.H.Q. who knew that the pashas had been deponed even. So consequently when about 200 of tno rabble of the town rushed down Khariu Kasr-el-Nil, which is the street G.ii.g. and our offices are m, and started m with sticks and stones to smash ever}thing breakable in the street there was no one more surprised than tho ordinary Tommies knocking about the streets. Inis mob broke every plate-glass window tor miles, and it appears that similar mobs wore doing the same thing in practically every quarter of the town It was quite well organised, but, of course, as soon as the Gyppies were let loose tfiey became just a rabble. , . Within two hours of the outbreak there were thousands of troops put into the town, and every civilian. policeman they- 'could' lay-'htinds' on was quelling the * disturbances. I can assure ..you there was sumo fun: no firearms were used, just sticks and batons, and immediately a mob commenced to collect then, either the military or tho police, would rush in and scatter them. One or two soldiers were rather bad handled on that day, but nothing very serious was received. Of course there were quite a number of Gyppies who had to be taken to the hospital. They burnt down a big printing establishment not far from here, and it was then apparent that the thing was serious. This mobbing . a *) " ikmg up ■ <?■ mobs went on all Monday, but settled down at night. On the Monday afternoon the senior N;C.O.’s were issued with revolvers and thirty rounds of ammunition, and instructions were given that we were not to go about singly, but must stick together in little crowds ,and also that, on leaving the office, we were to go straight to our billets, and were not to shift from there except under very special circumstances. This last order was not striotly observer) by our crowd: we wonted to see any fun that might come ofi. LOOTING AND ATTEMPTED BRIDGEWRECKING.

Tuesday went off fairly quietly,although there was a good deal of rioting in the lower part of the town, and one or t"c shops were burnt down. Wednesday they went for it properly down in the Mobsky quarter. A great number of the bazaars and shops in this quarter are owned by Europeans, the majority of whom are Jews, and in every instance the -hops of these people were smashed up and looted. Of course, we have been unable to go down there, it being well and truly out of bounds, but it is an absolute wreck. They say, that hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of goods have been looted. They went for the gold bazaar first, then everywhere and anywhere there was a possibility of lotting. The military sent waggonlbads of troops down, but they did not use their rifles, only pick handles, and there were numbers of broken heads among the Gyppies. The place is awkward to get through, little narrow by-paths, in many oases covered completely by the overlapping of the houses overhead, so that the Gyppies just went before our fellows and wrecked everything before the Tommies could come up with them. There were numerous little dast-ups everywhere in town that day. It was quite a oomnmn occurrence to see ten or a

'dozen soldiers clearing a square with -sticks. • The next morning. Thursday, the mol> attempted to wreck the (Jhoubra traffic bridge, and, of course, that really had to be stopped with a firm hand, so the infantry in tho nearby barracks of Bal> 01-a-Did, wore ordered to open fire, and did so, the casualties being reported as 17 killed and 50 wounded. That effectively mil a stop to the bridge-wrecking stunt, and I think it made the Gyppies think twice about doing any damage in the bettei- quarter of the town. In the.; own quarters they still carried on with the smashing of everything smashable. Thursday was very exciting during tho

morning, no one knowing exactly what was going to happen, but in the after noon everything quietened down again Friday they started it again in the Moosky. and when an armoured oar wa>* sent down to quell the disturbance some Gyppies on top of a house opened lire, wounding four soldiers. The oar im Mediately turned the machine on and killed a number more. Since- Dion there have been similar disturbances and I believe the casualties among the Egyptians up to Sunday night were IGI killed and several hundred wounded. SOLDIERS ACT ON THEIR OWN ACCORD. One little incident which happened yesterday morning affected us a good deal, because it was our own fellowc who were mixed up in it. Two New Zealanders and three Australians, who were down here on leave hired a taxi and started out for the Barrage, which is a very interesting place for sightseeing. They were very foolish to do so; it was looking for trouble. They got about four miles out, and ran into a mob of Gjippies, and the driver, an Egyptian, stopped the oar in the middle of the mob, and said it had broken; down, which was a lie, for immediately after our fellows got aivny lie started her going again. Well, tho boys were attacked and had to fight their vay out with sticks. One New Zealander was seriously injured, and is now in tho hospital, dangerously ill They all got away all right, but they were in a frightful mess when 1 saw them.

Consequent on this the New Zealanders and Australians held a mass meeting to decide what, and when, they were going to do in the way of revenge. This came off all right last night at 6.30, and i lie.i formed up into column of fours and marched through the town and rbrougn Choubrah to Choubrah village, the place where the mob took to our boys, a big crowd went right out there and played merry harry lor a while. Tney barm four or five shows down and smashed every nigger that came near them, Then they calmly turned round and marched back to town again. Nearly everyone ol us in the crowd had a ■ revolver, and it says something for the fellows that i oi one shot was fired, any head-breaking that had to be done was done with walking sticks. The latter hare been the order of the day for this week, and He vendors in the streets must have done a good trade. This morning G.H.Q. kicked up a bit of a shindy about us taking the matter into our own hands, but I think they have taken a tumble, that, if they don’t take some strong measures soon, the troops will take the matter into their own hands, and then there will be some blood-letting. The 10th Division, composed of big, raw-boned Irishmen (described in the army as tho gentlemen. .with... the hair between their teeth) is camped at Mena, nine miles from town, and to date they have been confined to camp, but it is rumoured that they are getting sick of it, and have threatened to march out, Jock, stock, and barrel. If they do, then every Gippo out q door will get his head broken, for they are the wildest, most hairbrained soldiers I bave struck yet. It is the same crowd who played up about three months ago. I hope they don’t get loose, or things will really move in this country, and in all probability it would ’put the kibosh on for us, in the political line anyway. WRECKING LINES OF COMMUNICATION.

On Saturday, the natives from many of the smaller villages started rioting; they have had great iroume wiui ui:t crowd, for they are going lor the runway lines. They have broken up tinline several times, though each time they have been caught and severeo punished by our machine-guns on tho .armoured -cars. However they got awaj , with, it last night bv putting an engine ami three goods trucks off the line at Kaloub, and that is tlie reason that no trains are running north from Cairo, The service has been very restricted so far as the South line is concerned, but things .seemed to have improved there lale.y. The military have hundreds of aeroplanes scouting along nil tne linos, and these can do a good deal to stop the natives damaging the lines. Ordeis have been given that anyone tampering with any lines, railway or telegraph (the telegraph lilies from Cairo have all been cut) is to be shot at once. Practically every train that has got

through from Alexandria has been attacked. so this means that we may get a chance to use the revolvers to-morrow i, wo can manage to get a train. I do hope the rotters come along, for I’m ]usr dying for a chance to knock them over. They come on by hundreds and fling stones, etc., at the windows of, the trains, so one will have no trouble in shooting them, and I'm sure X won't have any compunction about it. In sympathy with the movement, the tram-drivers and conductors have gone on strike, and so up till to-day we nave had no trams. 1 think the military would have stopped them anyway to prevent the natives moving easily from place to place. However, the trams started again to-day, and on each are two soldiers with ball cartridges and fixed bayonets. On the first day of the affair the mobs broke about a dozen trams, so they have had to guard them, and even now they are only using the main lines. Wo ire beginning to wonder when the affair is going to end; but it is quite ex citing going around with a loaded revolver in your belt and never knowing what s goir'" to happen round the next corner. We have, had one nice little dustup. x of us went round to the Abilin square and gut properly mixed up with a crowd of about 3000 students, and although we cleared the square once, they were too many for us, and eventually we had to get for our lives. While we were retreating down a small alley, we had the pleasant sensation of hearing flowerpots, half-bricks, and, in fact, any old thing, coming down from above, thrown by people on the roof. It was rather exciting while it lasted, but I was not sorry to get out of it unhurt. One of the armoured cars was sent down and the crowd soon scattered.

DIFFICULTIES OF THE AUTHORITIES.

I would not like to have Major-General Watson's job; he must be having a very anxious time. We “sling off” at the military authorities, but when you think the thing out, they have more to contend vith than you at first realise. If they hoot these natives "bolus bolus," then someone will make a row at the Peace Conference. (This is one of the bones of contention between the parties, for the Egyptians consider they should be represented, and they have not been allowed to send a delegate even.) Then, should one' of the other nations make trouble about Egypt, there is a possibility of England losing the country. It is easily seen that England would rather fight than lose any part of the country, because it is essential to the Empire that vve retain Egypt. As they cannot use violence to any extent, they will have bo take things quietly, and that is apparently what they are doing. Whether it will turn out all right remains to be seen.