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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.”