The Kingdom of Egypt 269
Wafd, violent as its language was. Though the vitupera-
tions of the extreme Nationalists gave countenance to,
and were perhaps partly the cause of, these crimes. As,
for example, when they clamoured that Zaglul was being
tortured at Gibraltar, and called on Egyptians to avenge
him by violence. It is true that when Zaglul was released
(March, 1923) there was a suspension of murderous
outrages, but there was another lapse again later, and
eventually Zaglul himself became the object of such a
terrorist attack.
Nor is the general shielding of the criminals by the
public evidence of a general approval of the murder cam-
paign. Egypt is in that transition stage from medieval
to modern civilisation that has always and everywhere
been accompanied by an increase in crime. Moreover,
whenever Governments have resorted to martial law
against nationalist and socialist movements there has
been a conspiracy of sentiment against judicial authority.
This was aggravated in Egypt, where authority had
always been associated with alien rule. Turkish justice
had been an instrument of cruel oppression and extortion.
British justice, though conscientious and incorruptible,
had been even more antipathetic. It had been too
rigorous, too remote from the humanities of the society
it regulated, and without any recognised sanction. To
the Egyptian Turkish justice was occasionally inhumane,
but British justice was essentially inhuman. The Egyptian
was quite prepared to protect himself against the local
brigand, and he did not see why the Englishman could
not protect himself against the political assassin.
It was therefore eighteen months before the murder
gang was broken up. During that time seventeen British
officials were murdered, and over twenty attacked in
broad daylight and in crowded streets with complete