THE REOCCUPATION OF NORTHERN AFRICA 389
ence, the Watanists, for instance, standing on the plat-
form of no negotiations with Great Britain until after
the British had evacuated Egypt and the Sudan. In
spite of the tributes which even his opponents have paid to
his ability, Zaghlul showed himself scarcely more practical,
for after a unanimous vote of confidence he went to Eng-
land in September, not to negotiate, but to find out whether
the English would abandon all their claims in advance of
negotiations!! He found only that the Labor Government
had much the same attitude toward British responsibili-
ties in the Sudan and British interests in the defense of the
Suez Canal as had Lloyd George and Lord Curzon.
Shortly after the Egyptian Parliament met again, on
November 19, Sir Lee Stack, the Governor-General of the
Sudan, and Sirdar of the Egyptian army, was shot by a gang
of agitators in the streets of Cairo in broad day. This was
the culmination of a murder campaign which from Sep-
tember, 1919, had resulted in forty-six attacks, including
sixteen on Egyptians who were in favor of cooperation with
the British. The Sirdar died at Lord Allenby’s Residency
on the 20th, and on the 22d the British presented a drastic
note stating that the murder was the natural outcome of a
campaign of hostility to British rights and British subjects
in Egypt and the Sudan, fomented by organizations in
close contact with the Egyptian Government; and that the
Egyptian Government had shown itself unwilling or unable
to protect the lives of foreigners. The note demanded an
! Perhaps Zaghlul was so deeply committed by extravagant political
speeches in Egypt that it was politically impossible for him to take any
reasonable position. It has been suggested also that he expected the Labor
Government in Great Britain, with his friend J. Ramsay MacDonald as
Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, to abandon the “imperialistic”
policies of Great Britain. if not in September, 1924, at least after the next
election should have given the Labor Party a majority in the British Parlia-
ment. The overwhelming Conservative victory in October, 1924, must
have been a blow to him.
