TREATY WITH EGYPT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 768, 14 September 1929, Page 13

TREATY WITH EGYPT

MELBOURNE PROFESSOR EXPLAINS NO DANGER TO AUSTRALIA There is no danger to Australia in the terms of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty, the heads of which have been approved by Mr. Arthur Henderson, British Foreign Minister. This is the opinion of Professor A. H. Charteris, lecturer in International Law at the Sydney University, as explained in a luncheon address to the Constitutional Association in Melbourne recently. Professor Charteris briefly traced the history of the British occupation of Egypt, following the acquiring by Disraeli, on behalf of the British Government, of the majority of the shares in the Suez Canal. He emphasised that the treaty approved of by Mr. Arthur Henderson did not differ essentially from that proposed by Sir Austen Chamberlain. The Chamberlain treaty provided for the retention of British troops, to a number approved by the British Government, in Cairo, while the Henderson treaty agreed that these troops should be stationed in the vicinity of the Suez Canal, somewhere east of longitude 32, which was practically in the desert. The principal point in the Henderson treaty was that the water supply for the British garrison, stationed in the desert would be dependent not on Egypt, but on Abyssinia. The alternative was the using of a large distillation plant for the water from the Suez Canal, but such a plant would form an admirable target for an aerial attack by an enemy force entirely outside Egypt. It was conceivable that at a future date an enemy might adopt the tactics of attacking Britain through the forces in the occupation of the Suez Canal zone.

The essential point about the Henderson treaty, emphasised Professor Charteris, was that it had to be first approved by the Egyptian Parliament before it became operative. There was not any Egyptian Parliament at the present time. Mahmoud Pasha ruled Egypt as a Parliamentary dictator without a Parliament. At his request King Fuad had suspended the Egyptian Parliament for the term of its natural life, which had then nearly three years to run. For the purpose which King Fuad had in mind, the suspension had worked out to the advantage of the Egyptians, inasmuch as it enabled the canalisation of the Nile, and other important national works to be proceeded with without political interruption. The Wafdists, the official Opposition, composed the great majority of the Egyptian Parliament; in fact, Mahmoud Pasha, the dictator, had only nine followers, and they were all in his Cabinet. The “Wafdists were the Sinn Feiners of Egypt, said Professor Charteris, and had taken possession of the Parliament elected in 1924, as a result of the adoption of a new Egyptian Constitution. Under the leadership of the late Zaghlul Pasha they' sent a deputation to the Peace Conference to state the grievances of Egypt, and became the followers of Zarmat Pasha, who was elected coalition Premier in 1928. It was with him that Sir Austen Chamberlain conducted the draft treaty which was rejected by the present Premier, Mahmoud Pasha. The Henderson treaty covered the four contentious points raised in the British Declaration concerning Egypt made in 1922: Defence, and British Imperial connections in Egypt; the protection of the lives and properties of foreign residents in Egypt; the defence of Egypt against foreign aggression; and the relations between Egypt and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The huge territory of the Sudan was governed by 101 British officials, whose duty it was to develop the resources of the country and teach the natives to administer their own affairs. The system was working satisfactorily, and under its rule cotton and other products were giving employment and creating national wealth. But there were no evidences, up to the present, that the people of the Sudan were any more capable of self-government than they were when General Gordon was murdered. Under the terms of the Henderson treaty it was not to become operative until it was ttrst approved “by. the newly-elected Egyptian Parliament.” The term was a vague one, and did not specify whether that was to' be the suspended Parliament or one that was to be elected under a new constitution. When the Egyptian Parliament approved of the treaty Mr. Arthur Hendersoh undertook to submit the

terms for approval and ratification by the British Parliament. The point for Australians to bear in mind was that this treaty was negotiated by Mr. Henderson with the advice and assistance of the permanent officials in Egypt, and these were, presumably, the same officials who advised the conclusion of the Chamberlain treaty. During The War It was hardly possible that the [ Wafdists, elected under the present j constitution, would approve of the j terms of any treaty advocated and | negotiated by Mahmoud Pasha. It j was, however, possible that Mahmoud, with the aid of a new constitution I approved by King Fuad, might get a! new Parliament elected in which he would have a majority as personal followers, and who would approve of the treaty. Meanwhile matters remained very much as they were. Neither the British Government nor the Egyptian Government was able satisfactorily to account for the presence of British troops in Cairo. They had been there “temporary” since 1881, when France and Italy were asked to join in the sending of troops there to quell a disturbance that threatened the Suez Canal. France and Italy refused, and Britain sent troops. From then until November, 1914, Turkey exercised a suzerainty over Egypt. When Britain declared war on Turkey the knot was cut by the declaration of a British protectorate over Egypt, and the establishment of martial law. Egypt was then used by Britain as a "jumping-off” ground from which to attack Turkey in Palestine. Under the terms of the Milner Commission the British Government undertook to abolish its protectorate over Egypt, subject to an Act of Indemnity being passed by the Egyptian Parliament. The future system of Government in Egypt was to be under a sort -of condominium, which was one of the worst sorts of government —a sort of paralysis by agreement. Since then there had been four different proposals for the settlement of the Egyptian difficulties, but they all had failed. There was not much hope that the Henderson scheme would have any better result. In any event it could not become operative until Mahmoud Pasha had done a lot of explaining to the Egyptian people. Concluding, Professor Charteris said that the only real difficulty in regard to the Henderson treaty was that instead of being stationed in Cairo the British troops were to be “in the desert,” somewhere between Suez and longtitude 32, where there was a serious, but not an insurmountable, water problem. It was certainly more desirable that the sweet waters of the Nile should be available rather than that there should be a distillation plant erected to distil water from the Suez Canal. The important point for Australia was that under the scheme, if approved, the Suez Canal route would still be adequately protected, and would continue as the main waterway between Australia and Britain, as well as between India and Britain.