26 DECEMBER 1914, Page 3

The State entry of the new Sultan of Egypt, Hussein

L, into the Abdin Palace last Sunday was remarkable for its accidental setting. The war had brought together men from many parts of the British Empire, and the spectacle must have been one of the most instructive ever seen in Egypt. Napoleon bade his soldiers remember that all the centuries of the Pyramids looked down upon them. One wonders what the Pyramids made of the newest thing in the land of new things—and of old things. " Virtue alone outbuilds the Pyramids"; and perhaps it is the virtue of the British Empire, which has bound to her the curiously mingled troops who saluted the new Sultan, that will outbuild the Pyramids and maintain an Empire in existence far longer than any the world has known. Lancashire Territorials, New Zealanders, Australians, and Ceylon Planters formed the line of troops in the streets. The new Egyptian flag was the Khedive's personal flag, and consists of three white crescents, each with a five-pointed white star between its horns, on a red field.