England and Egypt 305
personal, do not appear to have survived the end of British
control over the administration.
Another very ancient community in Egypt is that of
the Jews, Of them it will be enough to say that they
appear to have the same financial and social prominence
as in England. We may note, in evidence, that the
Chairman of the National Bank and of the Sugar Trust
is Harrari Pasha, and that Madame Cattawi is a lady-in-
waiting and a leader of society, Jewish firms are pre-
dominant in the coal and cotton markets and very
prominent generally in commerce.
The Syrian Christians are scarcely less powerful.
European in their energy and efficiency, they are wholly
Egyptian in their sentiment and association. They have
even acquired a strong hold over the land and own great
estates, from which many have made large fortunes, like
the Lutfallahs. They have much of the retail trade in
their hands, and the multiple shops of the Sednawi family
compete successfully with those of France. In industry
the cotton-seed presses of the Abu Shenab family are
notable. They are also prominent in the professions,
especially in the Press—the Ahram, Mokattam, and
other newspapers having Syrian editors. With such a
position, even though they have of late lost their
supremacy in the Civil Service, they can scarcely be con-
sidered in need of protection.
The Armenians, as a community, are less important,
and, since the British went, they are not so likely to
produce a political successor to Nubar Pasha. But they
have families highly influential in finance and commerce,
especially in the tobacco trade, in which the firms of
Matossian and Melkonian have a world-wide range and
reputation.
The Greeks are mostly small merchants and money-
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