One significant concern in The Key to Rebecca is the problem of British colonialism in Egypt. Although the goal of the heroic characters in the novel is to assure the victory of Britain over Rommel's invading army, a formidable barrier to this victory is the fully justified hostility of the Egyptians toward the British. The British, the elite governing class, are portrayed as arrogant and intolerant toward their Egyptian subjects, almost universally using the insulting epithet "WOGS" to refer to the Egyptians. Follett emphasizes the demeaning nature of this ethnic reference by having the German spy, Alex Wolff, explain the word's origin. He tells Egyptian friends that the letters W-O-G-S stand for Workers on Government Service and were once stenciled on the uniforms of the Egyptian hirelings of the British Colonial Administration. The Egyptians are still subservient to the British and many of them clearly resent...