offer.

The extreme nationalists had of course protested bitterly against the
protectorate from the first, and the close of the war saw a delegation
composed of both nationalist wings proceed to Paris to lay their claims
before the Versailles conference. Rebuffed by the conference, which
recognized the British protectorate over Egypt as part of the peace
settlement, the Egyptian delegation issued a formal protest warning of
trouble. This protest read:

"We have knocked at door after door, but have received no answer. In
spite of the definite pledges given by the statesmen at the head of the
nations which won the war, to the effect that their victory would mean
the triumph of Right over Might and the establishment of the principle
of self-determination for small nations, the British protectorate over
Egypt was written into the treaties of Versailles and Saint Germain
without the people of Egypt being consulted as to their political
status.

"This crime against our nation, a breach of good faith on the part of
the Powers who have declared that they are forming in the same Treaty a
Society of Nations, will not be consummated without a solemn warning
that the people of Egypt consider the decision taken at Paris null and
void.... If our voice is not heard, it will be only because the blood
already shed has not been enough to overthrow the old world-order and
give birth to a new world-order."[172]

Before these lines had appeared in type, trouble in Egypt had begun.
Simultaneously with the arrival of the Egyptian delegation at Paris, the
nationalists in Egypt laid their demands before the British authorities.
The nationalist programme demanded complete self-government for Egypt,
leaving England only a right of supervision over the public debt and the
Suez Canal. The nationalists' strength was shown by the fact that these
proposals were indorsed by the Egyptian cabinet recently appointed by
the Khedive at British suggestion. In fact, the Egyptian Premier,
Roushdi Pasha, asked to be allowed to go to London with some of his
colleagues for a hearing. This placed the British authorities in Egypt
in a distinctly trying position. However, they determined to stand firm,
and accordingly answered that England could not abandon its
responsibility for the continuance of order and good government in
Egypt, now a British protectorate and an integral part of the empire,
and that no useful purpose would be served by allowing the Egyptian