His failure to make any impression upon the British Government
with regard to the Sudan and the retention of British troops in Egypt earned for him, of course, a good deal of criticism, the bitterness of which was in proportion to the superfluous confidence with which he had often spoken about the certainty of making the British Govern- ment give way. On his return to Egypt Zaghlul tried to divert popular attention from his failure by developing what he thought would be an attractive programme of social reform. The Egyptians, however, were not to be diverted. As a last resort, therefore, he staged his resignation, though why he should have insisted so carefully upon the bad state of his health and taken the pains to draw a picture of himself as a private member performing just such tasks as his health would permit remains rather mysterious. To British observers all this seems inartistic. But, then, the canons of Egyptian realism arc no doubt quite different from ours.
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