Bedri was angry with the Egyptians for their continued protest against British-run irrigation projects for the Sudan and felt this protest showed the superficiality of their sense of unity. In indignation, he raised this point to the Egyptian politician: "But what your Ministers actually said was 'Irrigation in the Sudan will adversely affect the irrigation of Egypt at the present time.' Now does that really square with the picture which the Egyptian likes to paint of himself as the older brother caring for his younger, orphaned brother?"

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 1022