46 well, and several convictions were obtained which, were expected to help in restricting the illicit traffic in antiquities.

On the 6th October, Sir Gastofn Maspero, the eminent savant and well-known head of the Antiquities Department,-retired after a long and brilliant career, and on the 28th June, 1916, he died in Paris. He was succeeded by M. Lacau.

During 1915 and following years, the Depai-tment’s excavations and restorations ceased, or were greatly restricted. The receipts from visitors and other sources, which were earmarked for the Department, fell away to little or nothing; the monuments and the Cairo Museum were, however, visited by large numbers of troops. A group of interesting Roman remains was opened up by M. Legrain, whom many visitors to Egypt may remember as inspector at Luxor, and who died suddenly in 1917. The clearance of the surroundings of the sacred lake at Dendera was begun. A certain number of fairly important finds were made in various places, but perhaps the most interesting v.ms a limestone head discovered, not on any site, but in the hands of a dealer. The dealer had applied for perrnission to export the head, which on examination was found to belong to a statue discovered at Sakkara in the time of Mariette Pasha, and placed in the museum fifty years ago. It was purchased from the dealer and now reposes again upon its own shoulders.

iy._EDUCATION.

28. General.

Although' educational work in Egypt was seriously hampered by the war, a continuous effort was made not merely to avoid deterioration, but also to effect such progress as was immediately possible, whilst preparing for developments on an extended scale when peace should be restored. On the outbreak of the war, when financial prospects seemed gloomy, the educational budget was cut down by £E. 83,000, and it was not until 1918 that it again reached its pre-war level. The construction of new school-buildings was suspended; eight of the largest and most important schools were taken over by the military authorities for hospitals or other purposes. Forty-seven of the British staff of the Government secondary schools and higher colleges were released for military service, of whom five lost their lives. 0\ying to the shortage of paper and losses of cargoes it became extremely difficult at times to keep the schools supplied with text-books and other school requisites.

In spite of all these difficulties the Ministry of Education contrived not only to keep all its schools going, but also to introduce important improvements. Duriiig the war period the Ministry opened a new secondary school at Assiout, a men’s elementary training college, and a women’s elementary training college at Alexandria, and girls’ primary schools at Cairo and Alexandria, It also inaugurated several new developments in the form of infant schools, higher elementary schools for boys and for girls, and a supplementary course in the women’s elementary training colleges designed to provide specially qualified teachers for the girls, higher eleiffentary schools and infant schools. The Ministry was for the time foiled in its efforts to establish a girls’ high school in Cairo owing to the impossibility of securing suitable premises, but this difficulty lias since been overcome. Further, preparatory studies were made for the widest possible extension of elementary education among the masses of the people, and the establishment of a State university, both of them measures of a most important and far-reaching character.

The educational outlook at the time of the armistice thus seemed most hopeful. It is greatly to be regretted that these brightened prospects should have been suddenly obliterated, at least temporarily, by the schools throughout the country throwing themselves, or being thrown, into a turmoil of strikes and demonstrations. On the 11th March 1919 (the day following the expatriation of the four Nationalist leaders to Malta) the students of the School of Law went out on strike, and were soon joined by those of the other higher colleges., Within a few days all the schools were involved', either spontaneously or by peaceful or violent persuasion, and educational work was brought to a. complete standstill: the schools remained practically empty for the remainder of the school year. The Ministry of Education had no alternative but to postpone indefinitely the'annual examinations which are usually held in May and June, and the colleges and schools were closed for the summer vacarion at abnormally ea,rly date. In the primary schools, however, an extra session was held during the month of August to make up for lost time, and in order to give the pupils House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.