The Kingdom of Egypt 273
points. Indeed, Zaglul, by demanding from us an un-
conditional capitulation on all of them, closed those
avenues of approach that might otherwise have been
explored. Because the Labour Government, far from
being, as he supposed, more amenable to such pressure
as had obtained the Declaration of Independence, was,
owing to its peculiar position, less capable of making
concessions to pressure than its predecessors. The one
chance of settlement was such a generous gesture on
either side as would have restored some measure of
mutual confidence.
As soon as it was clear that the Labour Government
would not immediately evacuate Egypt and the Sudan,
the Egyptian Parliament began to take hostile action. It
struck out (June 28, 1924) the credit of £150,000 for
maintenance of the British garrison under the arrange-
ment of 1882—a pinprick which, of course, was within
its rights. It then (July 30) stopped payments on certain
Ottoman loans secured on the Egyptian tribute on the
ground that since 1922 Egypt was not liable. The
British Government protested, and the bondholders
eventually got a judgment in their favour from the Mixed
Tribunals, to which the Egyptian Government subse-
quently gave effect (1925).
Meantime, the British Labour Party continued trying
to get the two Governments into negotiation for a settle-
ment of the reserved points. But Zaglul, in order to get
his extremists to allow him to negotiate, found himself
forced to take up a position that made negotiation hope-
less. He declared (May 8) that he "rejected the
Declaration/1 and that the presence of British troops
in Egypt was '' incompatible with Egyptian independ-
ence. '' He demanded £ c complete independence of
Egypt and the Sudan.M He insisted that the condition