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EUROPE AND AFRICA 
part of Egypt where the military authorities might deem 
their presence necessary to protect Europeans, and the 
Egyptians’ objections to the title of High Commissioner for 
the British representative and to the obligation to consult 
him before making agreements with other powers.! 
It must constantly be kept in mind that while Great 
Britain was the dominant power in Egypt after 1882, 
fifteen other powers held treaty rights there which seriously 
impaired the freedom of action of the Government; that the 
Egyptian Nationalists will fall far short of their goal if 
Great Britain’s special position in Egypt is terminated 
without the renunciation of the capitulatory rights of the 
other powers, and that they rightly feel that they are largely 
dependent upon British prestige and influence to obtain the 
abolition of the capitulations.? 
It is a striking commentary on the anomalous position 
of Great Britain in Egypt that even after the Protectorate 
was proclaimed the Official Gazette continued to be published 
in French. Through the greater part of the period of 
British control, foreigners in Egypt paid taxes on houses and 
lands, but, under the treaties, the rate of the customs duty 
is limited to eight per cent ad valorem and other forms of 
taxation could not be levied without the unanimous consent 
1 Cf. Memorandum of Clauses to Suggested Convention between Great 
Britain and Egypt, handed by the Marquiss Curzon of Kedleston to Adly 
Yeghen Pasha on November 10, 1921. This is British Parliamentary Paper, 
Egypt No. 4 (1921), and is reprinted in Beer, op. cit., pp. 557-61. The 
Milner-Zaghlul Memorandum in Section 4 (ii.) evidently contemplated the 
presence of British forces only to protect “Imperial communications’ and 
refers to “the place” where “the forces” would be quartered. It contained 
no reference to a High Commissioner. The British insistence on these 
stiffer terms is said to have been due to the fact that Lloyd George “listened 
to the voice of the tempter, Winston Churchill.” Sir Valentine Chirol, 
The Occident and the Orient, 1915, p. 95. 
2 The older treaties with Turkey, such as those of Venice in 1454, of 
France in 1535 and 1740, and of England in 1675, are called capitula- 
fons.