112 A Short History of the Middle East
more amenable son Tawfiq, and the restoration with greater
powers of the Dual Control, whose financial policy was based on
the principle, financially orthodox but extremely callous when
applied to the poverty-stricken masses of Egypt, that 'no sacrifice
should be demanded from the creditors till every reasonable sacri-
fice had been made by the debtors', i.e. by the fellahin who paid the
bulk of the taxes. The nationalist unrest grew, unchecked by the
weak-willed new Khedive, until in September 1881 a military
demonstration headed by Colonel Arabi, an Egyptian of fellah
origin who had played a minor part in the officers' riot of 1879 and
was now the accepted leader of the native-Egyptian junior officers
against their Turco-Circassian seniors, forced the Khedive to accept
a nationalist government with Arabi as Under-Secretary for War,
Encouraged by this nationalist success, the Chamber of Notables, a
body previously without political authority, had the temerity to
claim the right to vote the Budget without heeding the representa-
tions of the foreign financial Controllers. Concerned at this
intransigence the French government, zealous as always in its
protection of the interests of the bond-holders who were mainly
French, proposed to the British government a joint armed inter-
vention in Egypt.
The British Liberal government showed itself reluctant to
interfere so drastically in the affairs of a nominally sovereign state,
but as the situation in Egypt showed no signs or improvement it
finally accepted the French suggestion in January 1882. Before any
action could be taken however, the French government fell on a
domestic issue, and its successor proved singularly irresolute on the
subject of Egypt. In February a full-blooded nationalist govern-
ment came into power in Cairo with Arabi now Minister for War.
He made plans to expand the army and place the effective political
power in the hands of the native-Egyptian officers. The British and
French governments, now thoroughly alarmed at the course of
events, joined in despatching naval squadrons to Alexandria, and
in sending a note to the Khedive demanding the dismissal of the
nationalist government. At the same time the British government
invited the Ottoman government to intervene, and was willing to
refer the whole Egyptian question to an international conference
composed of the ambassadors of the Great Powers at Istanbul;
gestures which appear to rule out any idea of a pre~conceived
British plan to annex Egypt. The dismissal of the nationalist