THE NILE AT BOILING-POINT.

CERTAIN writers and speakers in Europe have tried to convey the impression that the present agitation in Egypt is the work of a few misguided and irresponsible youths whose only object is to amuse themselves by creating trouble from which others will be the sufferers. I cannot see that any good purpose is served by countenancing or encouraging this illusion. There are of course large numbers of Egyptians whose material interests are bound up with British rule ; there are many who desire law, order, and peace ; and there are many who have close bonds of friendship with British officials and residents, and are far from desiring that any harm should come to them while probably most Egyptians are conscious or subconscious of the fact that the country is incapable of governing itself without European advice and assistance. Yet in spite of all this, I do not hesitate to say that the number of those who do not sympathize with the Nationalist movemer and desire that the country should enjoy sovereign independence is altogether insignificant ; and I will go so far as to say that, out of the considerable number of my Egyptian friends and acquaintances acquired through many years of residence in the country, I do not know any that belong to this category. Lord Cromer laid his finger on this point when he pointed out that the Egyptian mind is capable of entertaining two contradictory ideas at one and the same time.

Hatred of foreigners, always latent in the country, was given a great impetus by the Denshawal incident in 1906, when the British authorities determined to renounce any appearance of weakness, and to pursue a policy of severity, which they believed would put an end to "unrest," This incident has almost faded from the memory of the British nation, but in Egypt it will outlive the Pyramids, and it still forms the text of many a patriotic sermon and inflammatory pamphlet.

It would almost seem that the Egyptian " mentality " has under- gone a change. We havelmown the Egyptians hitherto as the most timid of people, and in fact they have not often shown conspicuous examples of the physical courage and contempt of death whirls we associate with the European. But now it would appear that contempt of death has become a ruling passion among them. On March 17th a procession of many thousands Of students of Al Azhar and of the secondary schools marched through the streets of Cairo shouting " Long live independence, freedom, &c." One of the demonstrators was carrying a Turkish flag. As he was passing the Salle Kltber at the'corner of Boulae Street, a British officer tried to wrest the flag from him. The youth struck the officer, and the latter drew out his revolver and shot him dead. A few yeais age an incident of this sort would have produced a panic, but now there was nothing of

the kind ; the procession passed on like a trail of ants, without showing any emotion at the incident. I relate this, not because there is anything remarkable in the incident itself, but in order to give an instance of the changed attitude of the Egyptian towards death.

References have been made in the European Press to the " Society of the Black Hand," which is generally attributed to the influence of the cinematograph upon the minds of naughty schoolboys. The avowed objects of the Society were to get rid of those whom they called the oppressors of their country by private assassination. On March 28th volunteers for the Society—officially styled the Party of Redemption—were solemnly called for at Al Asher. About two hundred and fifty stepped forward. These were lined up, and the funeral service was solemnly read over them with appropriate elegies and funeral orations. The membership quickly reached many thousands. The crimes committed by the Society have not yet reached anything very considerable. Two well-known British residents were assassinated, one being stabbed to death

with knives while he was sitting at dinner, and the other—

from several accounts—being shot in the Abdiue Square by a member of the Sultan's guard, who rested his rifle on the railing and fired two well-aimed shots. The Society has also exercised a good deal of intimidation over the natives. It forced all Government servants into a three days' sympathetic strike, which was prolonged by the majority.

In the absence of a representative Press, Egyptian public opinion expresses itself by circulars printed secretly and dis- tributed broadcast. These took the focus of appeals and diatribes put into the mouths of various sections of the community. In one the women of Egypt were made to apostrophize Government employees with withering sar:asm. " We wcmen of Egypt have bared our breasts to the swords of the enemy ; we have not flinched before their spears and their machine-guns, &o.; but you have not dared to support your country's cause by a universal strike." Other pamphlets gave highly coloured and mendacious accounts of British atrocities in the villages ; and as nobody knew the truth, and British communiqués during the war had so often borne such slender relations with facts as to inspire no real confidence, these circulars gained an easy credence.

The first number of the organ of the Black Hand or the Party of Redemption appeared on Friday, March 28th. It was full of poetry and passion, and it did not omit to recall the memory of the national hero and favourite, Mustafa Kernel. The usual hatred and contempt, with which Irish literature has familiarized us, were poured upon the British.

• The murders of the British officers, and the destruction of railwai stations and consequent interruption of communlhations, created such a serious situation that the authorities were im- pelled to threaten the severest reprisals against any villages or districts in which such outrages were committed. A number of prominent Egyptians, therefore, such as the Grand Mufti, the Rector of Al Asher, the ex-Prime Minister Rushdi Pasha, and the Coptic Patriarch, issued a circular appealing to the people to abstain from such outrages. It appealed to the Egyptians merely to abstain from attacking the railway, and did not call for any other form of good behaviour ; and, moreover, it made this appeal, not on any moral ground, but merely on the ground that the military authorities had threatened reprisals " that would involve many innocent persona." In this way the onus of the whole thing was thrown on the British authorities, and there was nothing in the circular to suggest that the signa- tories were otherwise thin in the heartiest sympathy with the Nationalist movement. The next day the signatories of the circular were denounced as "traitors," and at the University of Al Azhar the Rector, Ahmed Bakhit, ascended the pulpit amidst 'a chorus of imprecations calling down the curse of God upon the traitor.

_ On April 7th the nation was aroused from its nightmare into a paroxysm of active delirium. It was announced officially that the Government had climbed down, and that the four Nationalists, Said Pasha Zaghloul, Ismail Pasha Sidky, Moham- med Pasha Mahmoud, and Homed Pasha El Basil, were to be released from internment. The Egyptians instantly concluded that the British were to evacuate the country the next morning, and that complete, unalloyed, and unfettered independence was theirs at last ! The processions in the streets carried branches of trees and the flags of every nation (except the British) ; and the streets resounded with cheers and hurrahs for everybody (except the British), hurrahs for liberty, independence, and country, and the one sentence which years of patient and unremitting labour on the part of generations of English teachers had succeeded in inculcating with any degree of correctness- " Egypt for the Egyptians."

The attitude of the British and Australian soldier towards the native is undoubtedly a factor in the situation. The soldier is annoyed with the Egyptian for causing the postponement of demobilization, and imagines, that if he could only "get at them" the country would be pacified and he would be able to go home. Failing permission to do this, he shows his resentment in other ways.

The furnace where the minds of the nation are raised to a white- heat, and where all the spiritual and intellectual weapons of liberty and licence are forged, is the University of Al Asher_ Thousands of students met there nightly to hear the inflamma- tory eloquence both of learned Sheikhs and half-educated school- boys. Enormous sums of motley were collected for the strike movement. One of the English papers gave it as an instance of the extraordinary wealth of the country that thirty or forty thousand pounds had been contributed. As a matter of fact, 213.45,000 were contributed in one night, and there is good reason to believe that the fund reaches hundreds of thousands of pounds—and this even though we allow for exaggeration on the part of one of the speakers at Al Azhar, who declared that the fund had reached £E.500,000.

If Al Miter could be militarily occupied and its members dispersed, if some Cromwell could enter and peremptorily order the removal of the bauble, the agitation would be at an end. But unfortunately Al Azhar is the one place that the authorities dare not touch, for fear of exciting the religious fanaticism of the whole Moslem world. They tried to keep things within bounds by preventing the entry of irregular students and riff-raff, but all the measures taken proved quite ineffective.

Not only were violent speeches poured forth nightly against the British by Moslems, but even prominent Copts were wel- comed and had the privilege of hearing their speeches heartily applauded. At one time the assistance of the Senussi was relied upon, and a Sheikh related how they had sent their messenger to declare war upon the English. The English General thereupon telegraphed to General Foch and asked him to send sixty thousand men. General Foch replied : " I cannot spare a single man." On another occasion a lady was seen amides the vast concourse of men holding forth in a moat eloquent manner.

The question how far the movement is an Islamic one is not very easy to solve. Outwardly Moslems showed unbounded enthusiasm for the patriotic attitude adopted by _the Copts. But at the same time the Copts would probably have bees exterminated had they shown the least lukewarmness towards the cause. That Islam is a great political lever is beyond doubt, and through the influence of Al Azhar, which includes students from every Moslem country, the xenophobe movement is certain to spread through the whole of Africa.

There is one point of hopeless divergence in the views of the British and the Egyptians. The British believe that the Egyptians owe them a great debt for having defended them from the Turks and kept them in a state of wealth and prosperity all through the war. The Egyptians believe the opposite. They believe that Britain owes a great debt I. Egypt for having been able to use it as a base of operations, and as a source of man-power for the labour and transport services which made the success of the Palestine campaign