A Daily News dispatch from Asyut, Egypt, on told of a tax resistance campaign there:
The financial condition of Egypt is becoming daily more desperate. The policy
of collecting the taxes in kind has proved a complete failure. The fellaheen
in Upper Egypt obstinately refuse to pay the taxes. Neither the arrears nor
the current taxes can be collected. Only £5 sterling was paid last month in
the Moudirieh of Esnieh. The Moudir has been removed. The fellaheen complain
that the price of produce allowed by the Government is insufficient. They will
pay neither in coin nor kind. There are no disorders, but a sullen passive
resistance is everywhere offered. This attitude is encouraged by the Sheiks
and Notables. The Egyptian Government is on the eve of absolute bankruptcy. A
great part of the money borrowed on the security of the taxes in kind, and not
yet collected, has been spent already. I am assured on good authority that on
there
will not be a shilling in the Treasury to meet the ordinary expenses. The
Ministry of Finance has issued orders to the Moudirs to compel the immediate
payment of the taxes, and to warn the fellahs that if not paid at once their
land will be sold. This action is equivalent to a general eviction of the
population. The wisdom of this energetic course is doubtful at a moment when
the insurrection is creeping north, and the Mahdi’s agents are known to be
inciting the fellahs in Upper Egypt to revolt. An attempt to collect the taxes
by force will probably lead to a social war, which might spread over all
Egypt. The attitude of the population in Upper Egypt is so threatening in
several districts that the European residents are sending their families to
Cairo as a measure of precaution.
This was a particularly rough period in Britain’s turn to play Imperialist Outsiders Try To Run The Middle East.
