No man in the British Empire knew Egypt better than Lord Kitchener, and
he had very good reasons, apart from training, in sending us there.
There can be no doubt whatever that the majority of the Egyptians were
pro-Turkish if not pro-German. The educated Egyptian, like the Babu in
Bengal, is specially fitted by nature for intrigue, and if he sees a
chance to oppose whatever government is in power and keep his own skin,
it is his idea of living well. Egypt was immediately put under martial
law, but there was plenty of scope for a while for the midnight
assassin and the poisoner. Here and there soldiers would disappear and
street riots would be started by the wind. Who would not turn round on
seeing an R. S. V. P. eye in a face whose veil enhanced the beauty it
did not hide? But there would always be some sedition-monger to
immediately fill the street with a thousand yelling maniacs who would
scream that their religion had been insulted by the accursed infidels.
_Religion_ they knew nothing about, but to make trouble was their meat
and drink. There was a good deal of Irish blood among us, and many men
who would rather fight than go to the opera, so there were some good
old ding-dong scraps. Of course the "Gyppo" is no fighter, but he can
stand behind and throw stones and can't resist plunging the knife into
an inviting back, so sometimes our boys would get laid out. A street
row is always a dangerous thing, for those in front cry "Back!" and
those behind cry "Forward!" and there is likely to be a jam in which
the innocent, if there are any, get hurt. I saw a pretty ugly-looking
crowd dispersed with a characteristic Australian weapon. Firing over
their heads had no effect, nor threats of a bayonet charge, but when
two Australian bushmen began plying stockwhips, those niggers made
themselves scarcer than mice on the smell of a cat. As a good
manipulator of the stockwhip can pull the cork from a bottle, maybe
these plotters were afraid of having their guilty secrets picked from