The so-called 'Denshawai Incident' on 13th June 1906 has long been cited as a key event in the re-emergence of modern Egyptian nationalism.

The so-called 'Denshawai Incident' on 13th June 1906 has long been cited as a key event in the re-emergence of modern Egyptian nationalism. 

What followed, the public execution and flogging of Egyptian villagers after they attacked a group of British officers who had mortally wounded a local woman while treating their food supply — pigeons — as targets for game shooting, caused widespread outrage. 

And not just in Egypt. Writing on 28th October 1907, London barrister Frederic Mackarness argued that such behaviour would have but one result: “British rule in Egypt to be associated with injustice and cruelty, and the army of occupation to depend for its safety on methods of terrorism.”

“THE DENSHAWAI SENTENCES. 

“To the EDITOR Of THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE. 

“SIR, — The moment when fresh honour is being paid to Lord Cromer is surely not an unfitting one to add one more to the many appeals which have been addressed to Sir Edward Grey to remit the remainder of the tremendous sentences passed more than sixteen months ago upon the villagers of Denshawai for assaulting, under intense provocation, five British officers. 

“Let me briefly recall the facts. On June 13, 1906, these officers, without warning or permission, as required by the Army Regulations, went to Denshawai and began shooting the pigeons of the villagers. 

The pigeons of these villagers had been shot the year before much against their will; but they showed no active resentment until, by some accidental shot, a threshing floor was set on tire and the wife of the owner was badly wounded. 

Then the officers were set upon with sticks, and four villagers were shot by them in the legs, deliberately, as several witnesses say; accidentally, as the officers and other witnesses say. What is clear is that Major Pine-Coffin, the superior officer, must have regarded Lieutenant Porter, whose gun inflicted the injuries, as having been guilty of some very reckless act. 

For — here I quote the formal language of the judgment of the special tribunal which tried the case — “he went to the mob and arrested Lieutenant Porter, assisted by another officer, as a criminal, and all turned to go where they had left their carriages and horse.”

“The infuriated villagers surrounded and beat them, and two of their number, Captain Bull and Captain Bostock, ran off to the camp, some five miles off, for assistance. Captain Bull, who had been hit about the head, received a sunstroke and died in the evening. 

“As this was held to be a murder by the villagers, for which no fewer than four were hanged, it may be well to quote again the exact words of the judgment. It is as follows: 

“As Major Pine-Coffin saw that they continued to attack, he told Captain Bull and Captain Bostock to go to the camp for help. And although Captain Bull had received a severe blow on the head he obeyed the order — he ran on and looked back at no one. The heat was intense, and Captain Bull fell on the way unconscious, having also received a sunstroke. He was removed to the camp, where he died at seven o'clock the same evening... The post-mortem examination made by the medico-legal expert of the native tribunals showed that the blow had caused concussion of the brain, and that, though it was not sufficient in itself to cause death, it weakened him and made him to be quickly affected by sunstroke, and so contributed to his death. 

“Dr. Nolan — whose evidence for some unexplained reason was suppressed in the Parliamentary Paper — said that the direct cause of death was heat apoplexy, aggravated by concussion of brain caused by blows. It is plain from the above that Captain Bull was, in the opinion of his superior officer, so little injured by the blows of the villagers that he was specially selected to run five miles to the camp, and that in carrying out that order he was struck by heat apoplexy and died. I doubt whether any qualified judge administering British law could be found to direct that this was murder. Sure I am that no jury, not under the influence of panic or prejudice, would so find it. Nevertheless, four villagers were hanged for Captain Bull's wilful murder; but then the president of the Egyptian tribunal was a man admittedly destitute of all judicial experience. 

“The only other serious injury inflicted upon any of the officers was that Major Pine-Coffin's arm was broken; but so little disabling was this that he was well enough to appear and give evidence at the trial four days after the assault, and the three other officers actually appeared the very next day after it. Nevertheless, not only were four villagers hanged for these assaults, committed under such provocation, but two were sent to penal servitude for life — including the husband of the woman who was shot — one for fifteen years, six for seven years, three to one year's imprisonment with hard labour, and no fewer than eight were sentenced to receive fifty lashes each. The awful severity of these punishments was intensified to the utmost by the hangings and the floggings being inflicted, contrary to the law of Egypt, in public at Denshawai before the horror-stricken relatives and friends of the condemned. I do not believe that in our time, within the limits of the Empire, there has ever been a more deplorable miscarriage of justice. 

“Can the criminal law of Egypt, it will be asked, be so unenlightened as to permit such sentences? Far from it. The Penal Code of Egypt, drawn up under French and English supervision, is a humane Code, and makes them impossible. But a special law, pressed upon the Egyptian Government by the British Consul-General some years ago, does allow the ordinary law, with all its safeguards for the accused of trial by jury, and of appeal, and of the exercise of the Khedivial prerogative of mercy, to be completely set aside in cases where the injured persons are British officers. 

Can anything be imagined more likely to make the British army of occupation odious to the people of Egypt? 

“It was at one time suggested that there must have been grave reasons of State for the action taken by the British authorities. 

There is no serious evidence of any such thing. On the contrary, Mr. Findlay, who appears in the despatches as the person most responsible for the whole business, expressly says: “I do not believe that this brutal attack on British officers had anything directly to do with political animosity.” (Egypt No. 3. 1906, p. 14.)

“Well, then, Sir, what can be the justification for or the wisdom of burning into the memories of the Egyptians these deplorable incidents by keeping in irons at grievous hard labour the seventeen peasants who were not hanged, but amongst whom 400 lashes have been already distributed? Sir Edward Grey has never justified the sentences. 

Indeed, he plainly hinted on July 30 in Parliament that he thought a year's punishment was about enough. His difficulty seems to be that the reputation of certain Egyptian officials will be in injuriously affected, or their susceptibilities hurt, by clemency being shown to the villagers of Denshawai. 

It is unfortunate indeed for the system they represent if that is so. But it will be more unfortunate if Sir Edward Grey allows British rule in Egypt to be associated with injustice and cruelty, and the army of occupation to depend for its safety on methods of terrorism. 

It will be a still greater calamity if he compels the thousands who expect from a Liberal Government humanity and sympathy towards subject races to feel that this is a vain expectation. And this at least should be obvious to him. 

The longer the punishment of these villagers is persisted in, the stronger will grow the agitation — which is not confined to Liberals — against it, and the fiercer will be the light which mill beat up on the tragic circumstances of the Denshawai trials. — Yours faithfully, 

“FREDERIC MACKARNESS.

“Temple, October 28.” [1]

[1] 'Westminster Gazette,' 30th October 1907.

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