The 1921
Cairo Conference, described in the official minutes as
Middle East Conference held in Cairo and Jerusalem, March 12 to 30, 1921, was a series of meetings by British officials for examining and discussing the Middle Eastern problems, and to frame a common policy for the future. Particular concerns of the conference related to resolving the conflicting policies defined in the
McMahon letters (1915), the
Sykes-Picot agreement (1916) and the
Balfour Declaration (1917).
Winston Churchill, the newly appointed
Colonial Secretary, called all the British Military Leaders and civil administrators in the Middle East to a conference at the Semiramis hotel in
Cairo to discuss these issues. It was an experimental conference organized by the
Colonial Office, with the purpose to solve problems more efficiently, with improved communications, without protracted correspondence.