Sa'd Zaghlul appears as a leading figure in Egypt’s postwar nationalist politics. After the First World War, he attempted to send an Egyptian delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference in order to negotiate Egypt’s return to independence. This initiative placed Egyptian sovereignty within the international debates surrounding the postwar settlement.

The delegation was known as a Wafd, and this designation became the name of the political party associated with Zaghlul. The connection between the delegation and the party made diplomacy, national representation, and the demand for independence part of a single political vocabulary.

Zaghlul’s initiative reflected the wider expectations created by wartime sacrifice and the language of self-determination. In the excerpt, Egypt’s claim is presented alongside other North African demands that the principles invoked against Ottoman rule should also apply to peoples governed by the Allied powers.