It had seemed to many nationalists that the British government's declaration of the protectorate over Egypt had been a wartime necessity, but once the war ended and there was no indication given of lifting the protectorate. Zaghlül and his associates hoped that, as representatives of Egypt, they could travel to Paris for the postwar peace conference to present their country's case for independence from the British empire. Zaghlül and the other members of the delegation, or Wafd as their party came to be known, asked in late 1918 for permission from the British Resident, Sir Reginald Wingate, to leave for Europe for the conference. Wingate refused to allow them even passports.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 819