The rising in Egypt has not been no serious as
the compara- tive silence of the Government has led some people to suppose. The disaffected people were inspired by disappointed place- seekers among the Egyptian Pashas, by the riffraff or under- world of the Egyptian towns, and by Arabs who had been armed . early in the wer to protect themselves against the Senussi. Among such various classes there is no unity of purpose or leadership. To some 'extent the rising was the late and unex- pected result of German and Turkish propaganda. The German squib which had been lying on the ground for a long time appar- ently extinct suddenly went off. Sir Edmund Allenby is not likely to have mush further trouble. He has the prestige of a victorious General, which presents itself as an asset of extra- ordinary political weight to the Eastern mind. Probably the nine officers who were killed during an attack upon a train were unarmed. It is the amiable and highly unmilitaristic habit of our officers 'to travel unarmed except when on as ual duty. It is a symptom of the temper in which we govern. An occasional tragic incident is the reverse side of thie pleasing shield.
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