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Independence. The Prime Minister told him very plainly that if he continued his inflammatory speeches he would be held responsible for any consequences which might ensue. During the summer of 1924, the Egyptians had transferred their political propaganda to the Sudan. This was mainly conducted by Egyptians in the service of the Sudan Government. The Sudanese regiments were urged to mutiny by officers of Egyptian regiments stationed at Khartoum. The result was very nearly another Indian mutiny on a small scale, and a general massacre would have taken place had not the Egyptian officers let down the misguided Sudanese. The very serious situation was admirably handled by Sir Wasey Sterry, the acting Governor-General; and order was soon restored.

Zaghlul on his return from London in October, despite Mr MacDonald's warning, continued his inflammatory speeches, and Sir Lee Stack, the GovernorGeneral of the Sudan, was murdered on Nov. 19, about 1 p.m., in one of the most frequented streets in Cairo. The assassins fired at him point blank. Zaghlul called at the Residency to express his regrets, the one and only occasion on which regret was expressed for cowardly murders which had aroused the indignation of all civilised peoples. On Nov. 24, Lord Allenby presented a note to Egypt in person. For a few days the Egyptians were cowed and frightened. Then it was whittled and cut down until little was left of it but the payment of the half-million pounds which constituted the indemnity. It was Allenby's way; he had once again put his name to a proclamation only to render it ineffective by subsequent modification. On Nov. 25, Zaghlul resigned rather than accept some of the British demands. It is impossible to disguise the fact that his policy and his speeches were a contributory element to the crime which cast an indelible stain on the annals of Egyptian history. During his nine months of office Zaghlul Pasha managed completely to demoralise the country, and the whole administration became chaotic and corrupt. He persistently encouraged anti-British discussions in the House; he allowed prominent members of his party to direct from the Parliament-building propaganda that resulted in the outbreak in the Sudan

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in August 1924, and he pursued a policy of partisan persecution of Egyptian officials which gradually made it impossible for these persons to do their duty when that duty clashed with the interests of the Wafd. He not only incited the masses to violence, but publicly denounced the presence of British officers in the Egyptian army. When it was clear that the Conservatives would return to power in England, steps were taken to resume the frightfulness which the Wafd considered had been so successful with Liberals and Conservatives in the past. Men like Ahmed Maher and Mahmood-al-Nokrashy, who were subsequently tried for the murder of Sir Lee Stack, were introduced into the control posts at the Ministries of Education and the Interior. Demonstrations were revived, student-bands reappeared, and attacks were organised on private persons and property. Popular feeling was gradually worked up until it culminated in the revolutionary manifestations outside Abdin Palace, where the mob shouted, 'Saad or revolution,' while he was within dictating his will to the King. Three days later came the murder of Sir Lee Stack.

On Nov. 26 Ahmed Pasha Ziwer succeeded Zaghlul à as Premier, and the government of the country was carried on without a parliament, greatly to its advantage, until May 1926. In the early part of the summer of 1925, Lord Allenby tendered his resignation, and the appointment of Sir George Lloyd, a man of imperial ability, was announced as his successor. This appointment gave great satisfaction to the British community in Egypt, and it was felt that British prestige, which had reached a very low ebb under Allenby's régime, would soon be restored. This prediction has been fulfilled. Lord Lloyd has the complete confidence of the British officials, the commercial community, and the foreign colonies, and is feared and respected by the Egyptians.

The Egyptian General Election took place in May 1926, and resulted in an overwhelming majority in favour of Zaghlul. When, as was foreseen, the Wafdists preponderated in the new Chamber, Lord Lloyd, desiring to avoid formulating the objections of the British Government to Zaghlul Pasha as Prime Minister, supported the formation of a Cabinet which, if

composed partly of members of the Wafd, would have in the more important posts men whose personality would afford the guarantee which Great Britain required. In this, apparently, Zaghlul acquiesced; then he suddenly announced his determination to form a Cabinet himself. Foreign interests, with whose protection the High Commissioner is charged, became alarmed, and Lord Lloyd, by his masterly and statesmanlike handling of the situation, proved that the confidence which he had inspired was not misplaced. Adly Pasha became Prime Minister; but Zaghlul was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies, and from his chair he virtually controls the Government. On April 19, 1927, Adly resigned and Sarwat became Prime Minister. At the end of May an attempt was made to turn the Egyptian army into a political machine. This was a direct challenge to the special interests reserved by Great Britain in Egypt, and once again Lord Lloyd showed that he dominated the situation.

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There are two outstanding figures in Egyptian politics, but nothing is to be hoped from either of them. Zaghlul * is too old a leopard to change his spots. Sarwat, the one man with any pretensions to statesmanship, whatever he may say or think in private, will always shout with the crowd. Our position in Egypt is a false one, and Gordian knots are best cut. The Egyptians, as all their recent and past history shows, will never respect any obligations, and the time must soon come when we shall be forced to annex Egypt in order to preserve British communications with the East, upon which the safety of the British Empire depends.

J. E. MARSHALL.

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* After this article was written the death of Zaghlul Pasha occurred at his house in Cairo on Aug. 23, after a brief illness.

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Art. 3.-AGRICULTURE IN 1927.

WHAT is the true position of agriculture in this year of prolonged frosts, severe drought followed by incessant rain, and complaint, horrendum stridens, from all parts of the compass? Is the farmer at his last gasp? Is our greatest national industry moribund, or are we merely passing through one of the periodic crises that have been associated with the cultivation of the land since the old days of strip and baulk?

It was to form an opinion of the facts of the case, and to test some at least of the theories, that I entered in May last upon a long and fairly exhaustive journey of inquiry. Travelling by way of Sussex, Kent, Essex, to the northern rim of Yorkshire and passing across Cumberland and Westmoreland down the western side and then across the South Midlands and so home, the journey covered 1500 miles on the route map; but before Yorkshire had been left behind this limit had been exceeded; in the end the original figure had been wellnigh trebled. It does not suffice even on the smallest voyage of discovery to follow a beaten track; one must turn aside and go north, south, east, and west, in order to ascertain the precise nature of conditions in different parts of a county, for agricultural England is a mosaic, and each county has its regions of prosperity and adversity. It has rich land and poor, and they lie side by side; it has districts where the fortunes of the year depend upon the weather at a given season; it has farms, all too many of them, that will yield a profit only to the clever, far-seeing husbandman while inflicting loss upon the man who is unable to take advantage of fresh opportunities and new systems of cultivation.

On the journey that demanded twelve weeks for its completion, and even then remained of necessity incomplete, all classes concerned with the business of agriculture were seen; great landowners and tenant farmers in a big way, single-handed cultivators of a handful of acres, agricultural labourers, and those who add the cultivation of a modest holding to some regular business; market gardeners, fruit farmers; all, in short, who earn their living or a great part of their living by Vol. 249.-No. 494.

producing food. In addition colleges and institutes were visited, and problems relating to agriculture were discussed carefully with the District Commissioners and County Advisers of the Ministry of Agriculture, whose work, it may be said in parenthesis, does point the surest way to better times and justifies whatever grants the Treasurer has been persuaded to sanction.

Before going into detail a few definite statements may be made. In the first place, the industry has been ill-served by the Cassandras of the Press and of the National Farmers' Union. No man who is struggling bravely with adversity and who recognises that farming is at best an uncertain occupation, and that to combat free trade, difficult markets, and variable weather demands the best that is in him, is helped by being told that his business is decaying, his ruin a matter of a few months or years, and his immediate necessity spoon-feeding. He is prone in these circumstances to lose heart. He is safe to find his difficulties increased because those who read alarmist statements are not only farmers; they are merchants and shopkeepers and others who in normal circumstances will gladly give a good man credit. When they are told that the good man must shortly cease to pay his way, they are apt to present their bills and press for immediate settlement. 'I have sent a bunch of fat cattle into the market this week,' said a farmer to me, but I could not send them in my own name; it wasn't safe to do so. I should have had my creditors worrying me if they knew I had been realising on stock. I must wait for harvest to clear myself, and of late everybody who has farmers on his books is growing restive.' And a landowner said:

'This outcry about the state of farming is doing us no good at all. I had an excellent farm of several hundred acres, good land in good heart, practically let. The tenant was in every way desirable, all points between us had been settled satisfactorily by my agent, when suddenly he wrote and said that he had decided he would not put his money into farming. He thought times were too bad, and it might be just as well to invest in Government securities and live on the interest. What would happen if every man with money to invest in agriculture took a like view?'

If you go to the markets you will find that the talk

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