THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1907. SECRET SOCIETIES IN EGYPT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8545, 28 September 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1907. SECRET SOCIETIES IN EGYPT.

The Cairo correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette writes that El Watan, the Coptic organ, reports that secret societies for the propagation of Egyptian nationalism have been formed in all the principal towns in Egypt, and the range of these societies is being rapidly extended. For some time past hints have been thrown out in the vernacular press of the existence of these institutions, and at times these hints have not been veiled. All these allegations have, as soon as they-were made, been denied by the nationalist press, who have hastened to assure everyone that the persons alluded to as forming these societies are the most respectable and peaceful men, and that their accusers are actuated by personal motives. But one must agree with El Watan that the frequency of these accusations and the evident pains to which the nationalist press has gone in every instance to refute them, show that they are not ill-founded. The Coptic: journal maintains that the aim of the secret societies is to boycott British goods, to combat Europeans" in their -daily work, and to use underhand means to counteract and oppose the work of Government officials whenever it clashes with nationalist views. These secret societies will only be able to work up to a certain point. The Government has a very efficient staff of secret service men all over t'le country, and, undoubtedly, it ?s fully informed of what is happening. But ail the san.c it is rather disconcerting to find that the nationalist campaign has assumed this new phase. Evidently, says the correspondent, our nationalists are blind to the lesson which they should learn from the result of recent events in India.