تقرير البعثة الخاصة إلى مصر بقيادة اللورد ميلنر، وأوراق ذات صلة [و‎‎٨] (٤٧٣/١٥)

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TELEGRAM TO: Lord Allenby (Cairo)
15 MAY 1920. 10 p.m.
A member of the Milner Mission has had some conversa
tion in Paris with Adli and zaghlool. Zaghlool, upon whom
Adli has evidently exercised a moderating influence, is now in
a much more conciliatory disposition, and is willing and in
deed anxious to come to London to meet the Mission, but he is
afraid of the inevitable publicity of such a step and its
effect on his followers in Egypt. To get over this difficulty,
the Mission are prepared to invite him to come and see him.
He now asks whether he may make such invitation public. To
this Lord Milner, after consultation with me, is replying
that Zaghlool is at liberty to say that he has been invited
to meet the Mission, but not to say that he has been so in
vited as the head of the Delegation, or as the recognised
representative of Egypt or the Egyptian people. The invitation
to him is a personal one and based on the fact that he is
known to be a man of great influence with a large following in
his own country, and therefore the sort of man whose views the
Mission would naturally desire to hear. The distinction be
tween receiving him as representative of a great body of
Egyptian opinion and receiving him as the representative of
Egypt is vital and must be upheld. If he were to give a
different interpretation to the invitation — which he will be
warned not to do — we should have to publish a rectification.
If Zaghlool does come, it will probably be directly after
Y/hitsuntide, and he will be acccmpanied by Adli and perhaps
one or two of his own followers.