A Concise History of the Middle East

254 • 15 EGYPT'S STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

World War I
The quality of British administration in Egypt, superb up to 1914, declined
during the war. Many of the best Englishmen were called home for mili¬
tary service, never to return. Hordes of new officials and officers poured
into Egypt, making the country a vast Allied camp. The new men, inexpe¬
rienced and less sensitive than their precursors toward Muslims, often gave
offense and ignored the country's needs. So much attention was focused
on the war against Ottoman Turkey, notably the unsuccessful Dardanelles
campaign of 1915 and the Egyptian Expeditionary Force that conquered
Palestine and coastal Syria in 1917-1918, that critical problems were neg¬
lected in Egypt, which was placed under martial law for the duration of
the war.
Cairo and Alexandria were becoming overpopulated. Food shortages
drove up prices in the cities and in places where troops were concentrated.
Egypt's government, hoping to increase wheat harvests, limited the acreage
for raising cotton, a more lucrative wartime crop for rural landlords and
peasants. After having promised not to demand any wartime sacrifices
from the Egyptian people, the British ended up requisitioning grain, draft
animals, and even peasant labor for their Palestine campaign. "Woe on us,
Wingate," sang the farmers in 1918, alluding to McMahon's replacement as
British high commissioner,

who has carried off corn

carried off cattle,

carried off camels,

carried off children,

leaving only our lives.

For the love of God, now let us alone.

As the British grew in numbers, they lost touch with the Egyptians. The
judicial adviser, an able and usually sympathetic Scotsman, drafted a note
on constitutional reform that would have given Egypt a bicameral legisla¬
ture, with a powerful upper house made up of Egyptian ministers, British
advisers, and representatives of the foreign communities, which already
dominated the country's economic life. Even though it would have ended
the Capitulations, patriotic Egyptians could never have welcomed such a
constitution, which would have tightened the foreign grip on their coun¬
try. When the plan became known in 1918, it infuriated upper-class Egyp¬
tians. We prefer to rule ourselves badly, nationalists argued, than let
ourselves be governed well by others.