Lion's Might

Should the U. S. grant independence to the Philippine Islands and then, after six years, withdraw that boon, Filipinos could scarcely become more vexed than were Egyptians last week.

The Independent Kingdom of Egypt was proclaimed in 1922, supplanting the British Protectorate established when Egypt was snatched from Turkey by the Allies in 1914. Last week fat King Fuad, a placid puppet of Great Britain, signed two decrees. One suspended the Egyptian Chamber of Deputies and Senate for "three years, or longer if circumstances shall so require." The second decree suspended ''indefinitely" Article XV of the Egyptian Constitution wherein is guaranteed free speech and freedom of the press.

Thus by a single coup de politique the Great Power whose name stands axiomatically for a free Parliament and free speech, deprived Egyptians of all parliamentary or democratic expression and gagged them into nonresistance.

His Majesty Ahmed Fuad of course declared that he was acting by advice of Prime Minister Mohamed Mahmud Pasha. London correspondents even learned at the British Foreign Office that officials were "surprised" by the developments in Egypt. The transparent facts of the case appear when it is recalled that Prime Minister Mahmud Pasha commands the support of exactly 28 Deputies in the Egyptian Chamber of 210--that is to say he does not represent the country at all. The previous Prime Minister, Mustafa iNahas Pasha, recently and curtly dismissed by King Fuad, retains the support of 170 Deputies. Last week the members of his party, the Wafd, were forbidden to hold any political meetings whatsoever in the Egyptian provinces.

British Justification. It is not suppositious but certain that if Britain's King-Emperor ever tries to nullify the powers and liberties of his subjects, as did King Fuad last week, he will face instant Revolution.

However, Egyptians are not Britons. They are a weak people, for centuries the vassals of conquerors. If Great Britain abandoned them to true independence, they would again fall prey to some other Power--which Power would then control the Suez Canal, the chief route to India, vital artery of British trade.

For this reason the British Foreign Office has honestly and without hypocrisy proclaimed that control of Egypt is, for the British Empire, a measure of self defense (see INTERNATIONAL).

The present crisis was caused by the obstinate though patriotic refusal of recent Prime Minister Nahas Pasha to ape his King in the sorry but inevitable role of British puppet (TIME, April 2; May 14).

Assassination of individual Britons in Egypt is the one weapon left to individual Egyptians; but after the assassination of British Major General Sir Lee Oliver Fitzmaurice Stack (TIME, Dec. i, 1924) the British Empire demanded and received from Egypt an indemnity of -L-500,000 (about $2,300,000), together with other humiliating capitulations.