New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-04-27
Seething Egypt

to the nomadic populations on the otb.,
side Of the Red Sea. Thus, bv Il. Va
existence, by the simple fact tina. a.
powers have recognized it and treated
with 1t as equal, the new Arah;ss
kingdom has created dangerous 40;
tation in the Mussulman world
But the events in Egypt will hav.
served good end if they lead ~
British government to open its eve, ~
the imprudences it has committed ars
to adopt a rational Mussulman no,;.~
which will assure the tranquiNitv -
not only the British Empire, but En-
rope. The lesson Of the Egyptian riot.
is that the more the Mussulmsns a..
divided up among various countries N.
more peaceable they are. Senarataa
the Mussulman world prospers econor,
icaiiy end progresses in peace il thu
line of modern civilization, but un,tas
the Mussulmans feel awakened in tbsm
all the covetousness, all the ambition,
and the brutal appetites that chars.
terize the Western world.
The British Vie,c
The foregoing is, of course
French view. The British explana
ton of what is euphemisticallv
spoken of as unrest" in Egvpt ;s
idleness. A writer in "The London
m
Times" sets forth the Egvptian
situation as follows:
I'm Egypt cotton is king and manv
thousands of landowners who grow tbs,
cotton form a conservative aristocracv
among their own people. A man NAV
be appointed for brief period no
Minister or Under-S Secretary of State
ne may be prosperous doctor or law.
yer. but his standing among HIS own,
class of society depends unan how
much land he owns. HIS income, and
his e1lceeas' or failure with his last
crop. These territorial magnates hava
no sympathy with 'unreet,' with any
aelf=atyled Nationalist party. whoa
vagafies in limited Arab preas or
whose cbullitione followed by noiw
trial alarm them IA tending to weaken
commercial credit and the general mar.
ket. Thus, IL we eliminate tho vast
agricultural interests, the army. cler-
gy and law abiding traders in Cairo.
what remains as the element of unrest
in Egypt?
"This element consists of three kinds
of idleness, First, of the out-of-work
poorer class of clerks or 'efendis'
and street arabs of the towns; second.
of the lawless, wilder race of Egyp-
tians who inhabit the western bank
of the Nile from Behara in the north
down to Kena and Assuan in the south;
and, third, of the Bedouin fringe on
both sides of the cultivation, at Da-
manhur and Zagazig, in the Fayoum,
and along the roads to the western
GASES.
"Our departments Of Public Health
and Public Works have led to a great
increase in the native population, and
this increase, although absorbed in the
provinces, where field labor will in
variably be at a premium, has left
a large surplus of unemployed young
men in the towns whose future is not
without anxiety to sincere lovers of
Egypt. These youths cannot be peas
ants, and there is little hope of their
admittance into foreign houses Of COM
merce, where they could not compete
in ability with the Jew or Levantine
or Greek. However low the rate of
pay may be, however poor the prospect
of rise, the sole. desire of the major
ity of these young men is to enter
the service of the government, with
the result that every room in the min
istries, municipalities, mudriehs over
flows with native clerks whose sole
employment appears to be copying out
Arabic documents; and for every va
cancy there are fifty candidates who
have been educated in our schools
Their poverty and idleness render them
an easy prey to the fluent agitator who
promises a good time coming as soon
as we have evacuated the valley of the
Nile.