mel
"Sultan," and declared Egypt a protectorate of the British Empire.

This stung the nationalists to fury. Anything like formal rebellion was
rendered impossible by the heavy masses of British and colonial troops
which had been poured into the country. Nevertheless, there was a good
deal of sporadic violence, suppressed only by a stern application of the
"State of Siege." A French observer thus vividly describes these
critical days: "The Jehadd is rousing the anti-Christian fanaticism
which always stirs in the soul of every good Moslem. Since the end of
October one could read in the eyes of the low-class Mohammedan natives
their hope--the massacre of the Christians. In the streets of Cairo they
stared insolently at the European passers-by. Some even danced for joy
on learning that the Sultan had declared the Holy War. Denounced to the
police for this, they were incontinently bastinadoed at the nearest
police-station. The same state of mind reigned at El Azhar, and I am
told that Europeans who visit the celebrated Mohammedan University have
their ears filled with the strongest epithets of the Arab
repertory--that best-furnished language in the world."[150]

The nationalist exiles vehemently expressed abroad what their fellows
could not say at home. Their leader, Mohammed Farid Bey, issued from
Geneva an official protest against "the new illegal regime proclaimed by
England the 18th of last December. England, which pretends to make war
on Germany to defend Belgium, ought not to trample underfoot the rights
of Egypt, nor consider the treaties relative thereto as 'scraps of
paper.'"[151] These exiles threw themselves vehemently into the arms of
Germany, as may be gauged from the following remarks of Abd-el-Malek
Hamsa, secretary of the nationalist party, in a German periodical:
"There is hardly an Egyptian who does not pray that England may be
beaten and her Empire fall in ruins. During the early days of the war,
while I was still in Egypt, I was a witness of this popular feeling. In
cities and villages, from sage to simple peasant, all are convinced in
the Kaiser's love for Islam and friendship for its caliph, and they are
hoping and praying for Germany's victory."[152]

Of course, in face of the overwhelming British garrison in Egypt, such
pronouncements were as idle as the wind. The hoped-for Turkish attacks
were beaten back from the Suez Canal, the "State of Siege" functioned
with stern efficiency, and Egypt, floode