The Activities of the Hejaz and Egypt Committees that were invited to Paris Peace Conference after the World War I

Abstract

When the Paris Peace Conference convened with great hopes after World War I, though the Hejaz delegation headed by Faisal and the Egypt delegation headed by Saad al Zaghlul represented different states, one of them hoped to establish a new state, while the other hoped to go to Paris to get its independence from Britain. The conference was held in January 1919, and when the Allies went to Paris, they invited the Hejaz delegation to the conference with the special effort and incentive of the Britain, while the Egyptian delegates were deported to Malta solely because of their demands. Peace conference attendees carefully listened to Faisal’s demands. Egypt was the scene of major social outbursts, beginning with the shocking effect of the arrest of their heads of the committee Saad al Zaghlul and his colleagues. While Zaghlul and other nationalists were allowed to be released and go to Paris to prevent the events from going back to a great extent; the attempts to declare Egypt's independence, with justifiable claims, met with the blockade of Britain and the delegation returned to Egypt with empty hands. Although the Hejaz delegation under the leadership of Faisal listened with interest in Paris, the Allies wouldn’t follow through on many things they promised.