The Egyptian Labor Corps

Author: Mohamed Aboulghar

This book recounts a dangerous incident in modern Egyptian history, one that was not mentioned in school history books, and no book has been published to document it, despite its profound impact on Egypt. During World War I, Britain requested the Egyptian government to issue orders to district officers and village chiefs to arrest young farmers, tie them with ropes, and deport them with the British army to Sinai, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Western Turkey, the Greek islands, France, Belgium, and Italy. Their task was to perform arduous labor, such as building railway lines and loading and unloading ships. Indeed, an estimated 530,000 farmers were deported when Egypt's population was 12 million. Approximately 50,000 farmers, or 10% of Egypt's farmers, were killed! With the farmers absent from their lands, crop yields decreased, and food prices rose, leading to famines in some areas of Egypt. The British's mistreatment of the farmers, including beating them with whips and humiliating them, caused widespread anger towards the authorities who forced them to join the Labor Corps. This led to uprisings in various regions in 1918, which quickly escalated into a revolution that merged with the urban revolution led by Saad Zaghloul in 1919, making the revolution in the countryside even more violent. Ultimately, the protectorate was abolished, a constitution and parliament were declared for Egypt, and British advisors were expelled, although the British army remained.