Warships For Egypt

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1026, 17 July 1930, Page 11

Warships For Egypt

BRITISH GOVERNMENT’S MOVE

Serious View of Riots

PROTECTION OF FOREIGN PROPERTY

IN the interests of foreign life and property, the Government * of Britain has dispatched two warships to Egypt, where grave riots occurred early in the week, causing’ many deaths, troops assisted in quelling' the disturbance. The British Government is holding- the Egyptian Government and the former Prime Minister, Nahas Pasha, responsible for the protection of foreign lives in the troubled area.

United P.A.—By Telegraph Copyright' Reed. 11.10 a.m. LONDON, Wed. 1 n the House of Commons, the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, said in view of the menace to foreign life and property in Alexandria, Egypt, two warships had been ordered thither. These were the Queen Elizabeth and the Ramillies. Mr. MacDonald added that the High Commissioner for Britain in Egypt, in view of yesterday’s events, had informed the former Egyptian Prime Minister, Nahas Pasha, that he would be held responsible, with the Egyptian Government, for the protection of foreign lives and property. It is officially announced at Cairo that the casualties in the Alexandria riots included on European and 13 natives killed, and eight Europeans and 113 natives injured. The Italian Consul has protested against the death of an Italian front heart failure after a blow on the head. With the pi-rival of 700 troops from Cairo the situation was got under control.

It is denied that the troops were called out and fired. The population has been ordered to be indoors early in the evening. Most

of the streets are in darkness as the street lamps in the city thoroughfares have been smashed. The Prime Minister, Sidky Pasha, and other Ministers arrived at Alexandria and held a council meeting in the evening. They supended indefinitely the three chief Wafdist newspapers which have been publishing articles against the Government. POLICE PURSUED The Alexandria correspondent of the London “Times” says the action of the Wafdist committees in ordering a two hours’ silence in memory of “the martyrs for the constitution”— as the dead rioters at Mansourah are termed —caused the worst rioting known since 1921. Organised attacks were carried out and cartloads of stones and bottles were thrown at the police who, lacking steel helmets and arms, were kept on the run. «, The mob overturned and set fire to three police lorries. The police were almost powerless until they climbed on to the roof of the Law Courts and fired volleys into the mob. The riots at Mansourah, which led to the present outbreak, occurred on July 8, six people being killed and 48 injured. The former Prime Minis-

ter. Nahas Pasha, drove his car, with 30 students clinging to it, through the ranks of a police guard. A military cordon with tixed bayonets eventually intervened. The mob used stones and brickbats to assault the troops and later attempted to hang a policeman with a wire noose from a window.

BRITAIN STANDS FIRM

WILL NOT BE USED £Y ANY WARRING FACTION British Official Wireless Reed. 11.20 a.m. RUGBY, Wed. I When the Prime Minister, in the House of Commons, was asked by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, if lie could make a statement regarding Egypt, he said; “As early as June 4, when the present Constitutional crisis in Egypt first showed signs of developing, the Government instructed the High Commissioner that his attitude must be one of strict neutrality, though consistently with that position it was left to- his discretion to remind both parties lo the dis-

pute that we at this end were doing all in our power to maintain the good atmosphere in which the treaty negotiations had terminated. “Sir Percy Loraine made statements in this sense both to the King and to Nahas Pasha, who expressed his gratification since the formation of the present Government. INTERNAL ISSUE

“Sir Percy Loraine has made it clear that the Government intended to adhere to its attitude of neutrality and non-intervention in what appeared to it to be a purely internal issue for the Egyptians themselves to decide. “No other attitude was possible consistent with the declared intention of the Government in 1922, and we shall continue to maintaiu it to an extent compatible with our international responsibilities.”

Before news of the deplorable events in Alexandria had reached London, the High Commissioner had been instructed to make it quite plain that the Government did not intend to be used as an instrument for attack on the Egyptian Constitution. In consequence, it could be no party to an alteration in the electoral law. even if precluded by its declaration in 1922 from actual intervention in an internal issue of this nature.