Britain's Role in Egypt • 253from time to time, but would always make up in the end. Well, they eventu¬
ally did get a divorce, but the comparison remains apt. A marriage can be
built on many forces besides love. One common basis is power. One partner
makes the decisions; the other goes along out of either self-abnegation or
stark necessity. Think of the domineering husband and the submissive wife
in Ibsen's play A Doll's House. Britain, like Torvald, managed everything,
whereas Egypt, in Nora's role, cajoled and intrigued to get its way. Eventu¬
ally, Britain's power waned, and Egypt, never willingly obedient, found ways
to sap its authority. The protectorate gave way in 1922 to a unilateral decla¬
ration of Egypt's independence, limited by four conditions called "reserved
points." Then the two sides agreed in 1936 to formalize their relationship in
a treaty, of which Egypt soon repented. Finally, after a bitter quarrel, they
reached in 1954 a new agreement terminating Britain's occupation of Egypt
in 1956. Even this conclusion had a sad sequel in the Anglo-French invasion
of the Suez Canal late in that year. Each British concession was hedged with
restrictions; each Egyptian demand went far beyond what any British gov¬
ernment would grant. It must have been a very unhappy marriage.
Several explanations for this sad condition come to mind. First, the
British stayed in Egypt not out of love for the country or its people but be¬
cause it was a stepping-stone to India and the oil wells of Arabia and Iran,
and a base in their struggle with the Kaiser, the Nazis, and the communists.
The Egyptians knew this and felt it deeply. The British did not even like
them, to judge from the diplomatic reports, the social arrangements, and
even the fiction of the age. The Egyptian, as viewed by the British, was a
portly parody of a petty French official, a boastful coward, a turbaned Mus¬
lim fanatic, a noisy agitator blind to the benefits that British rule had given
his country, or a "wog" (for "wily Oriental gentleman") selling dirty post¬
cards in the bazaar. The Egyptians saw the British as coldhearted, elitist (it
was a sore point that for many years, the only Egyptians allowed to enter
Cairo's posh Gezira Sporting Club were servants), mercenary, and power-
hungry. Egyptians tended to prefer the French or the Americans, but not
(as their foes often alleged) the Germans or the Russians. Curiously, the
British related well to other societies in the Arab world, especially the bed¬
ouin. Perhaps it was the greater skill of desert Arabs at horseback riding,
hunting, and other sports enjoyed by upper-class British males that drew
their respect. France's influence on Egyptian schools and culture also may
have affected British perceptions. The alienation probably stemmed from
the way in which the British set themselves up as masters, whereas the
Egyptians (unlike other Arabs) were used to being servants of the Otto¬
mans. Later, neither side adjusted to the way the other was changing.