t it was due to the
ineptitude of the British Administration, the ill-treatment of the
natives by the Army of Occupation, and in particular the unsympathetic
attitude adopted by Lord CURZON towards the Nationalist leaders,
one of whom, according to Captain BENN, "held in Egypt a position
comparable with that of Mr. Speaker here." Across the corridor at the
very same moment Lord CURZON was asserting that Egypt was enjoying
extraordinary material prosperity, that the British soldiery had
shown wonderful restraint in very trying circumstances and that the
Government had not the least desire to repress Egyptian individuality
(when not too exuberant, of course) or deny to natives an
ever-increasing share in the administration of their country. They
would have been quite ready to listen to ZAGHLUL and his friends if
they had not begun by demanding the complete disappearance of British
rule. The intelligent foreigner will probably come to the conclusion
that Egypt is very like Ireland--except that it has no Ulster.

General SEELY gave a fairly plausible explanation of the apparently
wanton destruction of new aeroplanes that is going on at Farnborough
and elsewhere. Owing to the rapid progress in aviation they were
already obsolete for military purposes before they were delivered.
They are quite unsuitable for civilian use, and are therefore being
"reduced to produce"--a euphemism for "scrapped."

Mr. SHORTT was not in his place, but the interests of the Home
Department did not suffer in the hands of the Under-Secretary. Sir
HAMAR GEEENWOOD rattles out his replies with the speed and accuracy
of a machine-gun, and has a neat formula for dealing with
"supplementaries": "All these further Questions are covered by my
original answer."

* * * * *

"But in course of time sympathetic Americans and the other
tribes will be searching the ruins of burned-out passions
and agonies, armed with the rewritten Badaeker or its Allied
equivalent."--_Manchester Guardian_.

The re-writing seems to have begun already.

* * * * *

[Illustration: _The Muzzled One_. "TAKE MY TIP, YOUNG FELLER, AND HOP
IT--_QUICK_. THERE'S A COPPER COMING."]

* * * * *

MORE MUSICAL RECONSTRUCTION.

_(By our Special Reporter, who is also busy with the Coal
Commission.)_

At the three hundred and seventeenth sitting of the Musical
Reconstruction C