126	Egypt
that of foreign gold. It does not increase our respect for
Tewfik's clique that the bribes they now freely distributed
in Cairo were many of them subsequently found to be
false coin. But it is this corruption of political and
military leaders that largely accounts for the complete
collapse of the Nationalist cause,
British intervention in general, and the military invasion
in particular, was then, and still is, generally accepted as
having been a necessary action against Egyptian
anarchy. The wildest atrocity stories appeared in the
Press, and have since been repeated ; but there is very
little evidence of any disorder, and what there was is
suspect of having been deliberately fomented as an excuse
for intervention. Thus, in the two days following the
bombardment of Alexandria, there were disorders In three
neighbouring villages, in which altogether about a
hundred Christians were killed.^1 These excesses were
due to enraged refugees from Alexandria, encouraged by
Mudirs, who had been tampered with by the Khedival
faction. But the riots were sharply repressed, and there
was no recurrence during the remaining two months of
the Nationalist regime. Europeans in Cairo were pro-
tected and sent to Port Said under escort if they wished,
The machinery of administration and justice worked as
usual, and the Treasury accounts were found to be in
order and without defalcation when they were later taken
over. The Government was carried on by a General
Council of religious and civil dignitaries and by a Com-
mittee of Defence under Yakoub Pasha SamL Arabi re-
mained the popular head of the movement; but did as
little then towards organising defence as he did later
^1 At Tanta about seventy were killed—mostly Greeks and
Syrians. At Meballet eight Italians, At Damanhur fourteen
Christians and a Jew,