Printed papers on the political situation and military policy in Egypt [‎41r] (81/176)

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94. During 1921 negotiations were conducted by His Majesty’s Government
with Serbia, and subsequently with the League of Nations, with a view to the
evacuation of all the Russian refugees from Egypt. By the end of the year, however,
no definite agreement had been reached.
21. Refugees 'passing through Egypt.
95. A considerable number of refugees passed through Egypt during the year
on their way to destinations beyond, which necessitated their landing and tranship
ment here. Arrangements for their accommodation, railway journeys and onward
passages by sea were undertaken by the Public Security Department. Iheir
maintenance was greatly facilitated by the action of the International Quarantine
Board, who wore good enough to allow the majority of the refugees to remain in the
quarantine camp at Esh-Shatt, near Suez, till their onward voyages could be
arranged, although this tended to occupy space required for ordinary quarantine
purposes. In May 1921 a party of some 140 refugees, of whom sixty were Armenians
and the remainder Poles, Hungarians and of other nationalities, arrived at Suez
from Basra and Bombay. The European refugees were shortly afterwards
repatriated via Trieste, while some twenty of the Armenians left for various
destinations. The disposal of the remaining forty odd Armenians occasioned
considerable difficulty. They originated from the district of Lake I rmi. near the
Kurdish-Persian frontier and were technically Persian subjects.
96. The authorities in Mesopotamia had despatched them to Egypt with a view r
to their proceeding to the United States. On their arrival at Suez, however, it was
found that they had not enough money to pay their passages and to remain in
possession of the minimum sum insisted on by the United States authorities in the
case of all arriving immigrants. Sanction w r as obtained from His Majesty s Govern
ment to make up the deficiency, which amounted to £1,000, if the disposal of these
refugees could thereby be ensured. But enquiries from Washington showed that the
quota for Persians was actually complete for 1921, and their admission before
January 1922 was therefore very doubtful. It was, therefore, decided not to expend
the £1,000 referred to above, but to await the arrival of certain vessels chartered by
the Mesopotamian Administration for the conveyance of Armenian refugees from
Basra to Batoum. The party in question was finally embarked on one of these ships,
but not before they had been maintained in Egypt for eight months at public expense.
97. During the year some ninety Turks passed through Egypt; the great
majority came from the Yemen via Aden. They were accommodated at the camp at
Esh-Shatt, and were subsequently despatched to Constantinople.
98 The total cost incurred during 1921 by His Majesty’s Government on the
maintenance and disposal of refugees passing through Egypt was approximately
£5,800. Of this amount some £3,200 was expended on Armenians, but the remainder
is recoverable from the Governments concerned, e.g., Turkish, Polish, Hungarian, &c.
99. With the departure of the Poles, Esthonians. &c., mentioned in the section
dealing with Russian refugees, and of the party of Armenians who left for Batoum,
few. if any, refugees of nationality other than Russian are left in Egypt.
22. War Graves.
100. Earlv in 1917 a representative of the Directorate of Graves Registration,
War Office, visited Egypt, and, in view of the fact that military graves were widely
scattered—many of them in places which rendered proper surveillance costly and
access for relatives difficult—recommended that they should all be concentrated in a
f ew select cemeteries
101. The Council of Ministers was approached in November 1918, and
generously offered to make a tree gift of such sites as might be chosen, but the
completion of the necessarv formalities was prevented by political developments; and
a committee which had been formed at the instance of the Imperial W ar Graves
Commission in the previous August—consisting of four British officials ot the
Egyptian Government and five military members representing the various branches
of the Imperial forces concerned, under the chairmanship of Mr. J. Langley, C-B.L
Under-Secretary of State for Agriculture—found itself confronted by considerable
difficulties for want of official recognition. Exhumations and reburials in the chosen
cemeteries were, however, proceeded with during 1919-20 by the Graves Registration
Unit of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force; and many problems of a practical nature
were resolved as the result of a visit to Egypt in September 1920 of Sir Fabian Ware,
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