298 Egypt
ment has shown no interest in labour legislation, and
that Trades Unionism in Egypt has not yet obtained legal
status. There were in 1922 thirty-eight Trades Unions
in Cairo, thirty-three in Alexandria, eighteen in the
Canal zone, and six in the rest of the country which had
been recognised by the Conciliation Board. In two
cases difficulties due to the defective status of Trades
Unionism have had to be overcome by affiliation with the
British Workers5 Union. Federation has so far failed in,
face of difficulties of language, race, and religion.
Under these conditions it is not surprising that when
the new Nationalist Government took office in 1923 and
showed no inclination to improve the status of labour,
there were disturbances indirectly against it, though
directly against the foreign employers. Assaults on works
managers, attacks on their houses, and attempts to seize
the factories caused the foreign communities great alarm.
Strong representations were made by them to Zaglul,
and he preferred sharp measures of repression to reforms
that would only have brought Egyptian labour legislation
to the level of that of European States. Troops were em-
ployed against the striking Gabary dockers, and hundreds
of workers were kept for months in prison without a trial.
Which severity may have been due partly to the fact
that not only the employers, but also many of the workers
and most of their leaders, were foreigners. Because, in
dealing with disputes, which were mainly between British,
French, or Belgian firms and Italian, Greek, Syrian, or
Armenian workers, the Egyptian Government would
naturally take the line of least resistance and support the
employers. In any case, it seems clear that foreign em-
ployers so far from having to fear that alliance between
nationalism and communism, that causes them so much
alarm to-day in Canton and Shanghai, have rather to