The Kingdom of Egypt 289
selves ready to operate the institutions established under
that Declaration, and even to co-operate with the British
in so doing. We, for our part, must, none the less, or
rather, all the more, realise that they have a case, and
will sooner or later claim consideration of it. We must
recognise that the sovereign rights of Egypt can only be
a legal fiction, and its rights of self-government little
more than a licensed faculty, as long as an alien army
occupies the seat of Government and an alien authority
maintains such rights of intervention as might be con-
strued into the reserved points.