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lish. He claimed that the English exploited the pashas' fear
of Communism, and that both together conspired to continue
oppressing the Egyptian masses. In addition, he thought both
British and pashas were whipping up anti-Zionist hysteria to
postpone social reforms.
"Egypt is not in need of Communism," he said. "We don't
want Communist help. We need reform from top to bottom,
not revolution, which brings the dirty bottom to the top. I see
hope. We will some day have a democracy, a constitutional
monarchy like Sweden and Holland, where the real power
rests with the people."
Dr. Mandour thought for a moment, then continued
slowly:
"No people in the world are treated as miserably as our
masses. A farmer sells his dairy products and vegetables and
lives principally on cereals. He eats only eleven pounds of
meat a year. Of about 5,500,000 acres of arable land, 2,000,
000 belong to 1,500 pashas, including the royal family; 1,500,
000 acres to some 12,000 landowners; about 500,000 acres are
held by the Wakf,3 leaving 1,500,000 acres for more than
3,000,000 felaheen, less than a half acre each. The rest have
nothing. They work as slave-tenants. Egypt's wealth is concentrated in less than one per cent of her population. One out
of every two children dies before he reaches the age of five.
"Egypt could become the granary of the whole Arab
world," he went on. "We could feed all our people if we
used the Nile to irrigate the millions of acres of waste lands.
Do you know that only three per cent of our country is cultivated? In the matter of poverty the average Egyptian is the
richest man in the world. The average non-fellah family has
an income of from $75 to $150 a year. We are in the hands
of fanatics," Dr. Mandour said, now losing his professorial
calm. "We are living in the age of fanaticism. Men who are
3
Religious trusts, in which land is placed in the perpetual, tax-exempt
custody of a religious association that assigns the income for charitable purposes. The executives are often under political control.