Vol.01.p.026

Diary Transcription:

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draw their salaries and have no opinions, alienated completely the confidence of the Egyptian official classes and made the advance of the agitation easy.
The liberal government adopted a policy of conciliation, refused to restrain in any way the campaign of falsehood and slander carried on by the chief nationalist newspaper, pardoned the Denishawai prisoners, turned the schools over to a nationalist minister and finally submitted even such a technical financial question as the prolongation of the Suez canal concession to the national assembly (in no way a representative institution). The result was that the whole proceeding was regarded as a confession of weakness and fear on the part of the English. Each new concession was met by the nationalist with a scream of triumph and a howl for more. The language of the press has grown more and more incendiary until at last a Moslem has shot the Christian prime minister in the hope of frightening England into granting an Egyptian constitution! The state of the agitation is very well shown by an incident which Mr. Swift told me which happened in his school (government boys school). When the news of the prime minister's death was brought, the boys cheered. It will be interesting to see how the British will deal with the situation.

Tuesday, February 22, 1910

[ILLUSTRATION]

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