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EUROPE AND AFRICA 
Peace Conference. And when later the Prime Minister 
resigned and riots broke out in Egypt, the British met the 
situation (March, 1919) by deporting Saad Zaghlul and 
other Nationalist leaders. Serious rioting in Egypt fol- 
lowed, resulting in about forty deaths. Field Marshal 
Allenby, conqueror of Palestine, first Viscount of Megiddo 
and of Felixstowe, was appointed Special High Commissioner 
for Egypt and the Sudan, and restored order in part by 
rescinding the deportation of the Nationalist leaders, who 
were allowed to proceed to Paris. Later Field Marshal 
Allenby was made Governor-General of Egypt, and in 
November, 1919, issued a declaration that the policy of 
Great Britain was to develop the autonomy of Egypt under 
British protection. In December a commission under 
Lord Milner,! which had been appointed in May, arrived 
in Egypt to investigate and make recommendations. 
This commission was ostentatiously boycotted by the 
Nationalists. It was able, however, informally to discuss 
the situation with many Egyptians, and in June, July, and 
August of 1920, it exchanged views with Zaghlul Pasha 
and his delegation in London. On August 18, the Milner- 
Zaghlul Memorandum was made public, which included the 
following concerning the independence of Egypt and Great 
Britain’s position there: 
1. In order to establish the independence of Egypt on a secure 
and lasting basis, it is necessary that the relations between Great 
Britain and Egypt should be precisely defined, and that the 
1 The commission included General Maxwell, Sir Rennell Rodd, General 
Thomas, and J. A. Spender. Lord Milner had been Under-Secretary of 
Finance in Egypt in 1889-92. He was mistrusted by the Egyptians as an 
Imperialist, and a quotation from his book (England in Egypt, 1892, p. 287) 
was used against him as if it still represented his views: “If any man de- 
sires to help Egypt forward on the road to independence, the worst and 
most short-sighted thing he can possibly do is to resist the introduction of 
English control into any Department of the Government.”