BOOKS OF THE DAY
Allenby by Wavell
Allenby in Egypt. By Lord Vltava. (Harrap. ios. 6d.) THIS, of course, is a very good book ; for that is what we have learnt to expect from the author. The matter is absorbingly interesting, and the manner is as good as the matter ; the story, full of dramatic interest, loses nothing in the telling. The style is lucid and eco- nomical in language ; what is left unsaid and to the imagination of the reader contributes almost as much to the story as what is said. The chief actors on the stage are left by the author to speak for themselves—or rather, as we must say in the case of Allenby, to act for themselves. For, as we are reminded, Allenby never would speak for himself. Saad Zaglul, the King, Adly and others in Egypt occupy the front of the stage ; Curzon, Lloyd George, Milner and Chamberlain are rather more to the back of it, but have, of course, decisive roles to play. And the reader is sensible all the while of the somewhat chilly atmosphere of Whitehall. And how familiar is the scene. We seem to have seen and heard it all before. Not here and now only—in Egypt—but in other parts of the British Empire for many a long day!
First, an ambiguous situation about which the author says " It is not the British way to deal with a problem of this sort logically or directly. Their position in Egypt was anomalous and has never been defined ; their legal status in the Sudan would be even more difficult to regularise." Exactly! Years ago Theodore Roosevelt told us " to get in or get out " of Egypt. But at the time when this story opens, we were neither wholly in nor wholly out and still wondering how to resolve the difficulty! Second, an insensi- tiveness to the facts of the situation, let alone to its " nuances." " The instructed few," says Lord Wavell, " were aware of the problems and the dangers; but all had completely failed to gauge the growth of national spirit and the intensity with which both the educated classes and the illiterate fellahin felt their grievances." Third, we have, on the one hand, the strong man on the spot and, on the other, a well-meaning but distant Foreign Office—and a good deal more than two thousand miles between them.
Finally, there is the " chorus " made up in the front ranks of a British Community longing for " the good old days of Cromer " and the " strong hand " (not finding Allenby strong enough for them!) and in the rear ranks, students, agitators and the great mass of the population on whose b :half, ostensibly, all this to do " was about. "Plus ca change_ plus c'est la meme chose," one is disposed to say That, at all events, was the back-ground against which the author draws his portrait of the man : for this book is primarily about Allenby, written in the hope that the story " will enable a better judgement of his career and character to be made." The book opens and closes with a reprint of the prologue and epilogue of the previous volume published in 194o. " Allenby the Man " and " Allenby the General " are here summarised. All those who served
under " the Chief " or in other ways knew him will admire the faithfulness of the portrait ; while the reader who has not known him will get confirmation of it in the story here told.
The scene opens in Syria and Palestine when Allenby's responsi- bilities stretched from his base in Egypt to Syria. Here he had three main problems : The Turks who refused to disband their armies in compliance with the terms of the armistice. In a lightning visit to Constantinople Allenby's " inflexible determination " solved that problem. The second was Syria. Here his authority prevented a conflict between Arab and French. The third was Palestine.
The author refers to Allenby's negative views about Zionism. They were negative at the time ; but they changed. In his book The Zionist Movement Boehm says " The General who took such a sceptical view of Zionism originally -now declared that it was one of the proudest moments of his life to be able to witness the opening ceremony of the Hebrew University being performed by Lord Balfour." From the time when they first met in Palestine in 1918, Allenby had a great admiration and affection for the Zionist leader, Dr. Weizmann, and in the course of years his interest in the Move- ment deepened.
But the main part of this book is devoted to events in Egypt,
where Allenby's six years (1919-1925) fall into two parts. The first three of these he spent obtaining a workable policy on which to base our post-war relations with Egypt. He passed the last three years in superintending the beginnings of the new regime which resulted from that policy. It was a period of vexation and dis- appointment ; it culminated in a senseless crime, for which some held Allenby's forbearance largely responsible ; it ended with his resignation in circumstances of misunderstanding and irritation.
That is the story, crowded with events ; the releage of Zaglul within a week of Allenby's arrival in Egypt ; the Milner Mission in December, 1919 ' • the re-arrest of Zaglul in 1921 ; the Declaration of 1922 and Allenby's difference of opinion with the Foreign Office about it ; (the Government said " safeguards first and independence afterwards " • Allenby said " independence first and we are quite strong enough to maintain the safeguards ") ; Allenby's return home in February, 1922, when he announced to his friends that he was " not going to budge an inch and was not going to argue " ; his interviews with Lloyd George and Curzon, in the course of which he said to the latter, who had asked plaintively how they were to find a successor to him, " If you ask my advice send as good a man as me and a better, if you can find him " ; 1923, " the birth of a new order in Egypt " ; 1924, " Zaglul's Year " ; and finally, assassina- tion of the Sirdar and Allenby's resignation in strange • circum- stances.
All these events are told with sobriety and understanding, and
the book ends with the epilogue and some account of Allenby's latter days and quotations from some of his speeches. The book is in every way worthy of the man about whom in the last lines the author says " He was a great. Englishman ; may his example live and inspire us all in the testing years that lie ahead." This is a fascinating book - doubly so. For he who has written this, the latest chapter in the history of the British in Egypt, is now, himself, " writing " a momentous chapter in the history of the British in India. The author has become Viceroy. We turn our eyes from Cairo to Delhi with a feeling of great expectations.
WYNDHAM DEEDES.
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