Lank taut-waisted fighters, urbane yet steely-eyed diplomats, suave but ruthless statesmen—these are the overlords that Britain sends to cow subject peoples. Such is George Ambrose Lloyd, Baron Lloyd, British High Commissioner to Egypt—a so-called "independent state" whose King, Fuad I, reigns though he does not rule.
Last week Lord Lloyd gave a tea party. He is 46. He won his D. S. 0. at 38. Since then he has performed such bold acts as to order on his own responsibility while Governor of Bombay the arrest of Mahatma Gandhi, potent agitator. To Lord Lloyd's Cairo tea party there came an old and broken statesman who knew the British Baron's mettle. The 66-year-old statesman was Saad Zaghlul Pasha, leader of the Egyptian Wafd, a party which had just been returned to Parliament with a two to one majority. (TIME, June 7.)
Zaghlul, knowing himself persona non grata to the British, came to discuss whether he might assume the premiership. It was almost as though President Coolidge, duly erected by a Republican landslide, had felt obliged to ask the ambassador of a foreign power at Washington whether he might enter the White House.
Zaghlul, no cringing foe of Britain, was reputed to have told Baron Lloyd over the teacups that if he assumed the premiership he would not respect the "four rights"* which Britain reserves to herself in Egypt. The Baron, dandified of mien, direct of tongue, appears to have replied that under the circumstances Zaghlul could not become Premier of Egypt. High tea was ne'er brewed higher.
The 166 victorious Wafd parliamentarians assembled next day at a luncheon where spirits ran low. All were acutely conscious that the battleship Resolution was steaming toward Port Said from the British naval base at Malta. All knew that British Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain had just cabled in especially imperious vein* to the impotent Egyptian government. When Zaghlul Pasha rose, all emotion, the Wafd beheld how Pyrrhic was its victory.
Zaghlul spoke for 90 minutes. He might have conveyed his meaning in a sentence. The Wafd, he declared, must go outside its ranks to find a premier acceptable to Baron Lloyd. He, Zaghlul, proposed that they support former Premier Adli Pasha Yeghen, leader of the Liberal party, whom Lord Lloyd had consented to tolerate as Premier. The Cabinet of Ziwar Pasha thereupon resigned, and the Sultan summoned Adli Pasha to form a new government.
*1) Retention of the Sudan ; 2) Maintenance of a British Army of Occupation to protect the Suez Canal ; 3) British protection of Egypt against foreign aggression ; 4) British protection of foreign interests and citizens in Egypt.
*Censuring the act of two Egyptian judges who overruled British Judge Kershaw last week forcing the acquittal of six out of seven natives (two Zaghlulists) charged with the murder of Sir Lee Stack, Governor General of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (TIME, Dec. 1, 1924). Judge Kershaw resigned last week. The British note ominously "declined to accept the verdict, reserved the right to take steps to insure the future safety of foreigners in Egypt."