§ 55. Colonel WEDGWOODasked the Prime Minister whether he has any information to give as to the position in Cairo; whether the members of the Wafd are still under arrest; whether the policy of imposing fines has been sanctioned by His Majesty's Government; and whether he will now remove military rule in Egypt and recognise the real independence of Egypt within her proper ethnographical boundaries?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI can add little to the information given in reply to recent questions in the House, and in the Press, which has given full reports of the recent outrages. The answer to the second part of the question is in the affirmative. The policy of imposing fines on the districts where outrages have occurred is considered the most effective method of dealing with the indifference of the inhabitants towards crimes of violence, and His Majesty's Government have not interfered in this matter with the discretion of Lord Allenby who is in a position to appreciate local conditions. The abrogation of martial law under existing circumstances could only have the effect of removing all restraint on crime, and can in any case be carried out only when the conditions laid down in the Declaration of the 28th February, 1922, have been fulfilled.