The War
position in the country will accelerate progress towards
self-government *' ; but there was nothing in the Note
that would convey such a conviction to the Egyptian
Government. Rushdi and the other Ministers accepted
its invitation to continue in office, but without com-
ment. None was in the circumstances advisable or
advantageous. The educated Nationalist, never a man
to ride the storm, had been either cowed by its
apocalyptic thunderings and lightnings, or had con-
vinced himself that the right policy was to wait till the
clouds rolled by.
Sir John Maxwell had been sent out to Egypt to take
control, and his local experience, combined with great
energy, soon made him the real ruler. The first war
measures taken in Egypt were, indeed, no better con-
sidered than elsewhere, and showed even less considera-
tion than elsewhere for local sentiment. For example,
the saving of food effected by prohibiting the sacrifices
of sheep at Kurban Bairam seemed scarcely worth inter-
fering with a religious observance and a form of charity
as popular in Egypt as would be a free distribution of
plum-puddings at Christmas in England. While the
attempt at drawing gold bullion by accepting gold orna-
ments for twice their bullion value in payment of taxes
caused a general disturbance of domestic harmony
through husbands robbing their wives of their dowries.
There was more to be said for the ordinances restrict-
ing the cultivation of cotton in favour of cereals ; though
this was a heavy blow to the cotton boom that had built
up a new well-to-do middle-class in the country. In 1913
the cotton export had been valued at ^£26,000,000, and
the new rich who were threatened with a check to this
influx of wealth were all recruits for the new Nationalism,
On the other hand, some war measures, such as the