The War 227
(March, 1917). Permanent buildings had been pro-
visionally erected on land, for which the proprietors, of
course, demanded fancy prices. The land was then
requisitioned at a British valuation (August 19, 1918).
The consequent agitation of aggrieved proprietors grew
rapidly into a nationalist protest against the new menace
to Egyptian sovereignty and self-government.
Further designs against Egyptian independence were
read into the report of the Commission appointed (March,
1917) to recommend as to revision of the Capitulations.
This Commission was adequately representative, and its
reference included power to draft new laws. Unfortunately,
the proposals put forward through it by Sir W. Brunyate,
the Judicial Adviser, reflected a somewhat insular inter-
pretation of the problems and an insufficient recollection
of previous failures. They were, indeed, yet another
attempt to substitute British for French principles of
procedure ; and were, as before, strongly opposed by the
foreign communities and by the Egyptians themselves.
Egyptian lawyers saw in them a design to favour their
British competitors. While the Nationalists interpreted
them as a dodge to rivet British hold on the judicial
system. In this connection an anecdote that is clearly
apocryphal, and is a characteristic specimen of anti-
British propaganda, illustrates the bad relations between
English and Egyptians at the end of the war. It is that
when Rushdi protested to Brunyate that his proposals
would set the country in a blaze, the latter replied that
" Je Veteindrcd auec tin crachat." As Rushdi had a
ready wit, and Sir William's French was not colloquial,
the anecdote can be safely ascribed to propaganda.
But there was no need of propaganda to revive the
nationalist movement. The fellaheen were alienated and
had become anti-British. A doggerel chant of the day