Whistles & Brickbats

As unobtrusively as possible last week, young Egyptian Wafdists (Nationalists) wheeled barrows full of brickbats through the alleys of Alexandria, dumped them handily near Mehemet Ali Square and in the backyards of buildings along the famed Sheif Pasha (Alexandria's "Fifth Ave-nue"). So far as the napping authorities knew all that was going to happen was "Two Hours of Silence."

The "silence" had been ordered by Wafdist Leader Nahas Pasha, whom King Fuad recently forced to resign as Prime Minister, although he commanded 95% of the seats in Egypt's Parliament. The issue was clearly that of Democracy v. Autocracy, for King Fuad, a British puppet, was attempting to rule last week with a "Palace Premier," Ismail Sidky Pasha, who is not himself a member of Parliament and controls but three Parliamentary votes.

As the forty-fifth minute of the "Two Hours of Silence" ticked, leading Wafdists with police whistles stationed themselves beside the barrows full of brickbats, blew and blew. Swiftly an immense Wafdist mob collected, seizing the brickbats, hurled them through plate glass windows with such suddenness that shopkeepers had not time to lower their steel shutters. When police appeared the brickbats flew thicker.

Zing!--a paving stone knocked out Inspector of Police T. W. Fitzpatrick Bey.

Zam!--another laid low Acting Police Commandant Major Arthur Remanba Bey. Falling back before the mob police climbed to the roof of the Law Courts Building, too high for brickbats to soar. Firing from this vantage point they put lead and fear into the milling crowd. By evening Egyptian soldiers, called from Sidi Bishr Barracks eight miles away, had restored order.

Killed: 15 civilians, one policeman.

Injured: by gunshot, 60; by brickbats and blows, 160.

"Armed Force!" In the British House of Commons, Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald was baited on the Egyptian situation by a member of his own party, Ernest Thurtle, M.P. Inquired this Laborite with asperity:

"May I ask whether it is the intentions of His Majesty's Government to support by armed force a King who is flouting Parliamentary authority?"

Here was the issue, squarely put, but Mr. MacDonald adroitly avoided it. To be sure the British battleships Queen Elizabeth and Ratnillies (mounting between them 16 fifteen-inch guns) were already racing for Alexandria from cruising spots in the Aegean Sea. But Mr. MacDonald said that "His Majesty's Government is determined not to inter- vene in the purely internal affairs of Egypt," and all present understood what he meant. For minutes after this popular announcement the House of Commons rang with cheers.

"You are Responsible!" In Cairo the riot at Alexandria was protested verbally by the British High Commissioner. Sir Percy Loraine. He told bewildered Prime Minister Sidky Pasha that "Great Britain will hold you responsible!"

After thinking this over, and after the British warboats had placed Alexandria under the threat of their guns, Sidky Pasha replied with a plaintive written note. He said that of course he, as head of the Egyptian Government, was "responsible" for maintaining law and order, confident of his Government's ability to do so. He then read into the record for Egyptian home consumption that what the British were doing was neither more nor less than "intervening in the purely internal affairs of Egypt."

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