Rebellion and Independence 261
year following the Declaration of Independence four
officials were killed, six wounded, and numerous attempts
were made on the lives of British soldiers. These excesses
could only be explained—they cannot be excused—by the
fact that the division of the nationalist front and the de-
parture of Zaglul had broken the control of the^ organisa-
tion over its most extreme elements. This last phase of
the rebellion, that of individual assassinations, was a
consequence, no doubt, of the movement, but not one of
its concerted campaigns.
The Declaration of Independence had, in fact, dis-
organised and almost disintegrated the nationalist move-
ment. For example : of the fifteen signatories of the
original Wafd declaration, more than half, including
Ismail Sidki, Mahomed Mahmoud, and other prominent
personalities, now joined the Liberal-Constitutionalist
party and resumed co-operation. Of the three Pashas
deported to Malta with Zaglul, only the Bedawin,
Mohamed-el-Bassal, still stayed with him in opposition.
Zaglul had, in fact, been put into the same position as
de Valera after conclusion of the Treaty with Ireland.
But as British troops were withdrawn from Ireland and
not from Egypt, while de Valera failed to recover power,
Zaglul soon succeeded in doing so.
In the meantime Egypt was well occupied with organis-
ing its new State. The Anglo-Egyptian Government was
at last dead, after a lingering decline, and the new nation
had been born after a long labour. Unfortunately both
death and birth take a lot of clearing up.