The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1925-02-11

prepared BY the National Geographic 30
ciety. Washington, d. c.
The recent difficulties with Grea
Britain which have brought Egyp
prominently into the news have accom-
plished little new in this. Ever sine,
the plauge of frogs, since Pharaoh'
hosts were swallowed by the sea, since
Cleopatra drank dissolved pearls
broke up Roman homes and got herself
bitten by snake, Egypt has been II
the eyes of the world.
Nothing In this strange land Is
commonplace" Lord Miner has tOlt
US; and Napoleon, in his first talk with
the governor Of st. Helena, declared
Egypt to be ''the most important
country In the world" For sixty cen
turtles she has been invaded and occu-
pied, ruled and misruled, and ruined
and rebuilt by assorted enemies of
alien race, religion and speech. Now,
under brand-new king Of her own,
she has begun a new era in her event
full, tumultuous history.
No land is older in sin and civiliza-
| more mixed in race and religion than
the modern jewellers along the Nile !;
and no region anywhere offers more
puzzling problems or more curious con-
trasts in politics, economics and ma
tional ambitions than does modern
Egypt.
She was civilized and knew the Gull
IL rI,ax,
hairy cavemen were yet clubbing their
prey and eating it raw on that island
where classic Oxford now stands; yet
today nine-tenths of her people are
llliterate; many are blind from dis
ease; and probably half Of the real
Egyptians are mere day laborers, for
the wealth of Egypt is mostly in alien
hands; half Of the native farmers, or
million and a half families, own no
land at all. Still, in this "Proverbal
Land of Paradox" the people along the
Nile, thanks to British aid, are bet
ter off than they have been in genera
tions.
The fact that the population doubled
in the AZ years of British rule is sig
nificant. A wonderfully developed ir-
rigation system and vast network
Of communications. both so necessary
to agriculture in a rainless land, are
hers.
In the last seven years land has
trebled in value; rich farmers have
grown richer; Nile traffic has increased |
four-fold; into the dusty desert horizon
new tracks of steel have penetrated; |
and away up on the Blue Nile another |!
great dam is being built to impound |
water for irrigating a yet vaster cot
ton-growing area.
Profted by the War.
Egypt, more than any other land
then under British protection, waxed
fat off the World war. 1t Is said that
paid out over billion dollars
in Egypt for foodstuffs. camels, mules,
and supplies for the use of her armies
in the Middle East.
With this access of wealth and the
breakup of the Moslem East that fol-
owed the war, Egypt gained enormous
y in political and religious Importance.
Gone forever is the "changeless,
ireamy East" of decade agol Growl-
ng motor trucks have crowded crawl
ng camels from historic caravan
rails; desert Arabs who used to read
the passing planes of bold airmen
blazing sky trail from Rome to
Tokyo, or London to Sydney.
through train, 1.-THE Milk and
Honey Express" has been running
rom Cairo to Jerusalem, save for a
freak at the Suez canal, where the
passengers walk across q floating ,
ridge at Kantara.
Geographically, Egypt comprises all
he land between the Red sea and the
sahara. and runs from the Mediter-
anean south to the Nublan border, in [
luding the Sinai peninsula; in fact. 1t
3 about as big as Arizona and Texas ,
90 square miles along the Nile banks $
nd in the delta Cor a region about {
quail to Connecticut and Massachu- 9
efts), Egypt Is practically desert. 1
Its people, including fellaheen ina
I'VE peasants). Copts, Arabs, Greeks, 1
yrlans, Turks, Persians and Euro I
cans number over twelve millions. a
Quickly told, the story of modern Il
Egypt is that Napoleon invaded it in t
1913; then the Albanian adventurer, f
Iehemet Ali, and his successors held o
lastery till 1t went bankrupt in 1879. t
To protect creditors, France and n
ngland interviewed, deposed Khedive s
small. and set up dual CONTROL a
gainst this rule Arab Pasha led d