* * We are far from admiring the policy of
the late Govern- ment towards Egypt, and there are many things that Zaghlul might have said which it would be hard for an Englishman to answer. But he now denounces every- thing British from the Declaration of February, 1922, to the more recent setting up of the Constitution ; liberty has been destroyed—the Press stifledthe Budget burdened for the benefit of foreigners—the British still interfere in internal affairs—Egyptian Ministers abroad are controlled from the British Embassies—the Wafd Party can make no compromise with those who accepted the Declaration. It is expected that Zaghlul will get a majority at the coming elections. We shall then have an opportunity of seeing what he proposes to do. If he rejects the Declaration, then he must reject the Kingdom and Constitution which depend upon it. Of course Zaghlul knows as well as anyone, and perhaps better, that some measure of British protection is essential for Egypt if she is not to become the plaything of one of the Mediterranean Powers. His present attitude is almost certainly but a vote-catching expedient, but it is a reckless and iniquitous one, and it augurs ill for Egyptian self-government.
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