london decided to replace wingate with a strong military figure, field marshal sir edmund allenby (later created 1st viscount allenby in october of that year), one of the greatest british heroes of world war i. he was named special high commissioner and arrived in egypt on 25 march. the next day, he met with a group of egyptian nationalists and ulama. after persuading field marshal allenby to release the wafd leaders and to permit them to travel to paris, the egyptian group agreed to sign a statement urging the people to stop demonstrating. allenby, who was convinced that this was the only way to stop the revolt, then had to persuade the british government to agree. on 7 april, zaghlul and his colleagues were released and set out for paris.