leaders to go to London and there advance immoderate demands which could
not possibly be entertained.

The English attitude was firm. The Egyptian attitude was no less firm.
The cabinet at once resigned, no new cabinet could be formed, and the
British High Commissioner, General Allenby, was forced to assume
unveiled control. Meanwhile the nationalists announced that they were
going to hold a plebiscite to determine the attitude of the Egyptian
people. Forbidden by the British authorities, the plebiscite was
nevertheless illegally held, and resulted, according to the
nationalists, in an overwhelming popular indorsement of their demands.
This defiant attitude determined the British on strong action.
Accordingly, in the spring of 1919, most of the nationalist leaders were
seized and deported to Malta.

Egypt's answer was an explosion. From one end of the country to the
other, Egypt flamed into rebellion. Everywhere it was the same story.
Railways and telegraph lines were systematically cut. Trains were
stalled and looted. Isolated British officers and soldiers were
murdered. In Cairo alone, thousands of houses were sacked by the mob.
Soon the danger was rendered more acute by the irruption out of the
desert of swarms of Bedouin Arabs bent on plunder. For a few days Egypt
trembled on the verge of anarchy, and the British Government admitted in
Parliament that all Egypt was in a state of insurrection.

The British authorities met the crisis with vigour and determination.
The number of British troops in Egypt was large, trusty black regiments
were hurried up from the Sudan, and the well-disciplined Egyptian native
police generally obeyed orders. After several weeks of sharp fighting
and heavy loss of life, Egypt was again gotten under control.

Order was restored, but the outlook was ominous in the extreme. Only the
presence of massed British and Sudanese troops enabled order to be
maintained. Even the application of stern martial law could not prevent
continuous nationalist demonstrations, sometimes ending in riots,
fighting, and heavy loss of life. The most serious aspect of the
situation was that not only were the upper classes solidly nationalist,
but they had behind them the hitherto passive fellah millions. The
war-years had borne hard on the fellaheen. Military exigencies had
compelled Britain to conscript fully a million of them for forced
labour in the Near East and even in Europe, while there had also been
who