Egypt was an autonomous state of the Ottoman Empire from 1867 to 1914,
But from 1882 to 1914 it was ruled by Britain as a “Veiled Protectorate” which
had no basis in law.
In 1914 when Britain went to war with the Ottoman Empire, the veil was withdrawn
and Britain officially proclaimed the seized territory a Proctectorate. Despite various
cosmetic changes the British did as they pleased there until 1956 when Britain’s successor
super-power, the United States, pulled the financial rug from under her and she scuttled
out, humiliated after her squalid Suez debacle.
The quality of protection given Egyptians and the character of their protectors is,
perhaps, best described by Bernard Shaw in his preface to his play “JOHN BULL’S
OTHER ISLAND.”
In 1906 Denshawi, British officers, in pursuit of sport, shot tame pigeons kept by villagers
to feed themselves and their families, and scattered shot wounded some of the villagers,
whose menfolk rallied against the marauders with sticks and clubs..
The British ran away. One in his haste died of sunstroke; some of the
Villagers had been killed by the British.
A Special Court was assembled on the orders of the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey,
who was in London.It was presided over by the Acting Consul. Four were hanged, after flogging.
Three were imprisoned and flogged. A further nine were imprisoned.
Five hundred Egyptians were forced by the British to watch the barbarous public punishments.
The highest British authorities approved this exhibition of “justice” to those enjoying their
Protection.
The Acting British Consul and President Court was Mr M.de C. Findlay, later H.M’s Minister in
Christiania (Oslo).
[See “BACKDOOR DIPOMACY”]
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