The Evening Star (February 9, 1946)
80 Egyptians injured as students in Cairo riot against Britain
Demonstration follows protest on answer to treaty revision plea
CAIRO (AP) – Egyptian students battled Cairo police today during a demonstration against Britain’s attitude toward revision of the British-Egyptian treaty. At least 50 students and 30 policemen were injured, and approximately 150 students arrested before quiet was restored.
Shouting “Down with Britain” and “To the revolt,” the students surged through the streets of Cairo. Police lines were broken and a bus was set afire.
The demonstration started after a mass meeting protesting the recent British reply to Egypt’s request for revision of the 1936 British-Egyptian treaty.
The fighting flared when approximately 3,000 students, caught between police lines near a Nile River bridge, started hurling stones. Bystanders joined in shortly on the side of the students. Police Chief Lewa Russell Pasha, who was on the scene during the melee, immediately summoned mounted police.
An estimated 5,000 students attended the meeting at Faud University, while Egyptian police and British military police patrolled the streets and public squares. The city was declared “out of bounds” for British and American troops.
Banners were hoisted proclaiming “Down with imperialism,” “The question of the country is international” and “Get out of the Nile Valley.”
Speakers attacking the British reply said it was impossible to negotiate with British Ambassador Lord Killearn because he was “imperialistic.” They also charged that Egyptian Foreign Minister Abdel Hamid Badawin Pasha was a “British agent.”
The 1936 treaty provides for the establishment of a military alliance between Egypt and Great Britain and for the maintenance of British forces in Egypt for 20 years.
Egypt has asked for evacuation of all foreign troops and a revision of the status of the Sudan, which is now jointly controlled by Britain and Egypt. In her reply to the Egyptian request, Britain agreed to undertake revision of the treaty.