* * * * When the present Egyptian Prime Minister,
Mahmud Pasha, suspended Parliament for three years only optim- ists could have imagined that he would fill in the time with work for Egypt that may prove to be far more profitable than politics. Even the Labour Party in Egypt is expressing some satisfaction. Mahmud Pasha proposes to double the capacity of the great Aswan reservoir, and to add about 600,000 acres to the farm lands. Next, he proposes to do something for the health of the peasants, who, in spite of the expanding revenue of the country, have been left in a miserable state of disease. Insanitary pools are to be filled up and wholesome water. is to be supplied to the villages. Mahmud Pasha is determined to sell small plots of land to the peasants. He will have to circumvent all the clever manoeuvring of the specu- lators who, as usual, will try to get the land into their own hands. Finally, he has a programme for- building houses for manual workers in the towns and letting them at moderate rents. It would be a strange shift of fortune if at the end of three years Parliament met again with new ideas as the result of Mahmud Pasha's dictatorial but bountiful dispensation.
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