Crisis?

In consequence of recently terminated Egyptian elections--the first to be held under the new Constitution (TIME, April 28)--the Cabinet of Yehia Ibrahim Pasha, Minister of Education in the Jewfik Nassim Cabinet of 1922, resigned.

A famed Egyptian politician, who controls 90% of the seats in the newly elected Parliament--Said Zaghlul Pasha--was summoned to the Aidin Palace in Cairo, Capital of Egypt, and was requested by King Fuad to form a Ministry, which he did. After leaving the Palace he was greeted by tremendous ovations.

The new Premier is head of the Zaghlulist Party (Nationalist, therefore Anti-British, standing for complete independence of Egypt). He was formerly a Cabinet Minister during Lord Cromer's regime (1884-1907), is known to be a man of vigorous action, strong views, high intellectual attainments.

During and after the War he became openly opposed to British interference in Egypt and was imprisoned for sedition and later deported, first to Seychelles, a group of British-owned islands in the Indian Ocean, second to Gibraltar. He was only recently allowed to return to Egypt.

Premier Zaghlul's Cabinet, composed mostly of Nationalists who, like himself, have been imprisoned for their political opinions, aims at popularizing the Government, achieving complete independence of Egypt and the Sudan. The Premier declared in a letter to the King that his acceptance of office did not infer acceptance of certain laws passed by previous Ministries against which his Party protested. An ominous passage in his letter referred to making former Ministers accountable for Egypt's past misfortunes.

It was pointed out that, although Premier Zaghlul has intimated his desire of conferring with the British Labor Government upon questions in Egypt, affecting British interests, his determination to achieve real independence for his country is likely to meet with a rebuff from London. The main British interests in Egypt are: safety of the Suez Canal route; safety of British interests in the Sudan, the sovereignty of which remains British pending negotiations with Egypt; safeguards for foreigners in Egypt who were hitherto under British protection; compensation for certain foreign officials; maintenance of military and air force bases.

Other critics emphasized the fact that while Britain professes to favor Egyptian independence, her interests are inimical to such aspirations. In this connection it was asserted that, although a British Protectorate was declared only on Dec. 18, 1914 and ended on Feb. 18, 1922, a virtual Protectorate was in existence from 1883 to 1914, and that the present situation differs little from that which obtained during that period.