While I was sitting with him this morning listening to his explanation of his neutral attitude throughout Ramadhan I was overcome — as I not infrequently am — with the sense of being as much an Asiatic as a European. For if I'm not too Asiatic to form a clear opinion, he made a pretty good case...
To be able to exchange the frankest views with the Ancient East, as I do with the Naqib, is both amazing and delightful.
To F.B.
BAGDAD, September 5, 1920.
The truth is I'm very tired of being so hot. One always feels in September as if one could not bear it any longer. We had some bad days this week with a blazing wind, but really it's beginning to cool off a little. One doesn't need a fan till about 10 a.m., but fan or not my office nears 100 every afternoon...
The problem is the future. The tribes don't want to form part of a unified state; the towns can't do without it. How are we going to support and protect the elements of stability and at the same time conform to the just demand for economy from home? For you can't have a central government if no One will pay taxes and the bulk of the population won't pay taxes unless they are constrained to do so. Nor will they Preserve a sufficient amount of order to permit of trade...
We are now in the middle of a full-blown jihad, that is to say we have against us the fiercest prejudices of a people in a primeval state of civilisation. Which means that it's no longer a question of reason. And it has on its side the tendency to anarchy which is all over the world, I think, the salient result of the war. When one considers it, it's very comprehensible that the thinking people should revolt at an organisation of the universe which could produce anything so destructive to civilization as the war. The unthinking people, who form the great mass of the world, follow suit in a blind revolt against the accepted order. They don't know how to substitute anything better, but it's clear that few things can be worse. We're near to a complete collapse of society — the end of the Roman empire is a very close historical parallel. We've practically come to the collapse of society here and there's little on which you can depend for its reconstruction. The credit of European civilisation is gone. Over and over again people have said to me that it has been a shock and a surprise to them to see Europe relapse into barbarism. I had no reply — what else can you call the war? How can we, who have managed our own affairs so badly, claim to teach others to manage theirs better? It may be that the world has need to sink back into the dark ages of chaos, out of which it will evolve something, perhaps no better than what it had.
To H.B.
BAGDAD, September 12th, 1920.
It's getting a little cooler, thank Heaven; but Sep. is a disagreeable month. The air is very still and rather sticky — where it gets its stickiness from I can't think — and the dust hangs in long low lines over the world. This morning I was out riding just after sunrise — it was difficult to decide whether the earth or the air was the more solid. The dust bars hanging over the horizon were like slabs of desert in the sky, and in the uncertain light of sunrays dust and damp, when I turned round to look for my dogs I couldn't see anything tangible, but I marked each one by the little golden dust cloud that it made as it ran. My dogs are very well. So's the parrot. But the mongoose has run away.
To H.B.
BAGDAD, September 19th, 1920.
...Sir Percy knows what complete confidence there is between us and that I should always tell you exactly what I think or do. That I should be able to do so is to me the foundation of existence and it is entirely owing to you that you are to me not only a father but also the closest and most intimate friend. You have been the only person to whom I have related fully the ups and downs of these extremely difficult months and as far as anyone can relate without prejudice circumstances in which they have played a part, I have done so to you. You will therefore believe me when I tell you that it is only quite recently that I have realized how prominent a place I have occupied in the public mind here as the pro-Arab member of the administration. Over and over again lately I have heard from the frequenters of the coffee shops, my own servants and casual people up and down the bazaars, that I am always quoted in the coffee shop talk as the upholder of the rights of the Arabs. I have invariably replied that the talk is incorrect; it is H.M.G. which upholds the rights of the Arabs and we are all of us the servants of H.M.G.
To H.B.
BAGDAD, September 27th, 1920.
The most remarkable feature this week has been the weather. On the 21st, it rained quite hard enough to lay all the dust. There hasn't been anything like it since 1907, they say, and then not quite so early. Then we had two days of South wind and cloud, very hot and stuffy and finally the most terrific dust storm lasting many hours and followed by violent thunder storms...
A. T. is going to India, Egypt and C'ple on his way home — that's his scheme. He wants to get a comprehensive view of the Eastern question. I told him you would be very glad to see him in London...
What I hope Sir Percy will do is to give a very wide responsibility to natives of this country. It is the only way of teaching them how hard the task of government is. I think we must now wade through a long period of uncertainty and mistakes which, if they are wise enough and we patient enough may result in a more equable division of our respective spheres of activity. Up to now we've done it all. I should stand by and let them do it all for a bit and then see if a better adjustment is not possible...
To H.B.
October 3rd, 1920.
This morning being Sunday I rode out before breakfast to see Haji Naji. He had a party of guests sitting in his arbor and he was showing off the 'sécateur' you senthim. "The first," he said, "that has been seen in the Iraq," and he proudly snipped off the branches of an adjacent mulberry tree to show how well it worked. I wished you had been there to see. I've been very agricultural this week. I attended a demonstration at the cotton farm where experiments are being made in various kinds of cotton and various treatments. About a dozen Bagdad landowners were present and were deeply interested. So was I. On an average of 3 years, a certain long-stapled American variety seems to be the most promising. There seems every reason to believe that we shall produce as good cotton as is grown anywhere in the world, and their yield is very large...
There is one other party I didn't tell you about. Capt. Clayton and I went to tea with one of the leading Agail of Bagdad. The Agail are nearly all central Arabians; they invariably speak of themselves as subjects of Ibn Saud. They are the merchants and caravan leaders of the desert. I had an Agaili with me when I went to Hayil. They live in the right bank part of Bagdad — Karkh is its name — and they have a famous coffee shop of their own. I'm in intimate relations with them for they are the people from whom I get news. I do them a good turn whenever I can and they respond by coming in to see me whenever they return from Syria or Arabia and telling me what they've heard and seen...The tea party was delightful. The walls of the diwan are mellow with decades of tobacco smoke, the only furniture, benches round the room and one table for us at the upper end. In order to do us honour he had provided a tinned plum pudding for our special benefit. We scooped it out of the tin and eat it cold. A large and distinguished party of Agaili had been invited to meet us — all frequenters of my office — and we talked Arabian politics with great gusto for an hour and a half. During all that time Suliman stood in front of us and talked. It was a miracle of grace and poise. Incidentally, he has, like all Najdis, the most slender hands with long fingers and nails an American beauty might envy. Their hands are their most characteristic feature. They are seldom shaved but as a rule their beards are scanty — it is rare to see a full thick beard. Some are Wahabis, i.e., they do not smoke, but most of the frequenters of cities abandon the stricter rules of the desert creed. I do like them so much. They are to me an endless romance. They come and go through the wilderness as if it were a high road, and they all, most politely, treat me as a colleague, because I too have been in Arcadia. When they talk of tribes or sheikhs or watering places I don't need to ask who and where
they are. I know; and as they talk I see again the wide Arabian horizon. ...
To H.B. and F.B.
BAGDAD, October 10th, 1920.
I don't know what I should do without your weekly letters, they are the only link I have with the outer world. I do sometimes feel dreadfully isolated.
The Coxes were to have arrived yesterday but they've stayed an extra day in Amarah and Kut and don't get here until to-morrow. The delay was a godsend as far as I was concerned for I was prostrated with a violent cold yesterday and did not go out of the house. I'm better to-day and I hope I may be all right, to-morrow...
I had a long talk with Sasun Eff the other day — I went to Call On his sister-in-law and found all the men there eager to embark on talk. Sasun Eff said he felt sure that no local man would be acceptable as head of the state because every other local Man would be jealous of him. He went on to throw out feelers in different directions — one might think of a son of the Sharif, or a member of the family of the Sultan of Egypt, if there was a suitable individual, or of the family of the Sultan of Turkey? I said that I for my part felt sure that Sir Percy didn't and couldn't mind whom they selected except that I thought the Turkish family was ruled out — it ought to be an Arab Prince...Any one they think we are backing they will agree to, and then intrigue against him without intermission. It is not an easy furrow to plough! These reflections will throw an illumination on what is being said in the English papers, from which it would appear that Sir Percy has only to say "Hey Presto" for an Arab Government to leap on to the stage, with another Athene springing from the forehead of Zeus. You may say if you like that Sir Percy will play the role of Zeus but his Athene will find the stage encumbered by such trifles as the Shiah problem, the tribal problem and other matters, over which even a goddess might easily stumble. But if he's not a Zeus he is a very skilful physician and one in whom his patient has implicit confidence. That last item is our chief asset and it's clear to me that whatever line he may decide to pursue, it's up to us to follow him with all the strength and ability we may individually possess. The underlying truth of all criticism is however- and its what makes the critics so difficult to answer — that we had promised self-governing institutions, and not only made no step towards them but were busily setting up something entirely different. One of the papers says, quite rightly, that we had promised an Arab Government with British Advisers, and had set up a British Government with Arab Advisers. That's a perfectly fair statement...
As to expenses, you realize that my living expenses here don't include what I get from England, clothes, books, etc. The price of everything is really appalling but the best way to remedy that is to get nothing more. Meantime as far as I'm concerned that's the course which providence has marked out for nothing has come though I've got bills for tricotine and things which Elsa kindly bought for me. I shan't pay them till the things arrive.
Tuesday, 12th October. A word to say that Sir Percy arrived yesterday, thank Heaven. The Office is in rather a turmoil with no one knowing exactly what they ought to do next, so I can't write at length about his reception — I will next week. I'm taking on a sort of temporary Oriental Secretary job till people find their feet.
[I include here two historical summaries, written by Sir Percy Cox and Sir Henry Dobbs, respectively, of the years during which Gertrude worked under them in the East. I am most grateful to them for this very valuable help.]
By MAJOR-GENERAL SIR PERCY COX, G.C.M.G. ETC.
Lady Bell, having decided to publish a series of letters written from the Middle East by her distinguished and lamented daughter, has requested me and my successor as High Commissioner, Sir Henry Dobbs, to write, each of us, a background to those letters, a sketch of events for the period during which her daughter was associated with us in the responsible and absorbing task of establishing national Government in Iraq under the guidance of Great Britain.
I cordially welcome the opportunity thus afforded me of paying a small tribute to the memory of a dear friend and most loyal and devoted comrade through eight years of strenuous service.
I first met Gertrude Bell at the house of mutual friends, the late Sir Richmond and Lady Ritchie, during the winter of 1909, which found me at home for a few weeks on duty from the Persian Gulf Residency. Sir Richmond had arranged for us to meet in order that Miss Bell might have an opportunity of discussing with me the possibility of carrying out during the coming year her long cherished ambition to penetrate into Central Arabia. Her particular objective at the time was Northern Nejd, the principality of Ibn Rashid, whose forbears, with their capital at Hayil, figured so prominently in the immortal pages of Charles Doughty. She was anxious to enter from one of the ports of the Arab coast of the Persian Gulf, lying within my sphere as British Resident. Unfortunately at that particular juncture inter-tribal relations between the principalities of Eastern Arabia were so disturbed that an expedition from that side would have been fore-doomed to failure and I was obliged to advise her to wait for a more favourable opportunity. She accordingly turned her attention once more to the western borderlands and the early spring of 1910 found her back again in Syria embarking on a five months expedition from Aleppo to Bagdad and thence onwards through northern Mesopotamia to Konia, a journey which she described on her return in a second book of travels, "Amurath to Amurath," published in 1911.
It was not until four years after our meeting, that she found herself, in December 1913, once more in camp near Damascus, and this time she succeeded in giving the slip to tiresome Turkish officialdom and made a bid for northern Nejd. After an eventful and venturesome journey she returned safely from her wanderings in March 1914, with her object accomplished, but tired out with the trying conditions of desert travel and badly in need of repose; and hardly had she time to recover normal health, much less to devote herself to any account of her experiences, when the Great War broke out and claimed her for other service. There is little doubt that if she had been spared to return once again from Bagdad for a spell of leisure at home, her first task would have been to work up her notes for publication; but as, alas, this was not to be, it is some consolation to know that her old friend Dr. David Hogarth, our great authority on Arabia has prepared from her notes a Paper which he will have read before the Royal Geographical Society ere this volume is in print; so that, at any rate, the results of the expedition have not been lost to geography.
After the brief intercourse of 1909-1910 above referred to, I did not meet Gertrude Bell again until the spring of 1916, when after a period of some months spent in our Arab Intelligence Bureau at Cairo, working up Arab questions and more particularly inter-tribal relations, she was sent on deputation to G.H.Q. Intelligence in Mesopotamia and reported herself at General Sir Percy Lake's Headquarters at Basrah. The intention was that having thoroughly mastered on the record the intricacies of Arab politics in the Hejaz she should now work up tribal questions from the Iraq side and maintain liaison in regard to these matters with her late comrades of the Arab Bureau at Cairo. After she had spent some weeks at her task, the military authorities decided that the particular service for which she had been deputed to Basrah had been completed as far as it could be for the time being, and finding a member of her sex a little difficult to place as a permanency in a military G.H.Q. in the field, they offered her services to me in my capacity of Chief Political Officer, — services which were gladly accepted. Thus began the 10 years of devoted service to myself and my successors, which were only terminated by her untimely death in harness on 11th of July 1926.
My duties as Chief Political Officer to the G.O.C.-in-Chief at the period when she joined me were partly military and partly civil. In the first place I was the medium of communication between the Military Commander and the civil population, and his adviser in his political dealings with them. For this purpose I worked as a member of his G.H.Q. Intelligence and was always in close touch with that branch, assisting in the examination of prisoners and spies, the sifting of information, the provision of infor
mers and interpreters and so on. On the purely civil side it devolved on me, under the G.O. C.'s supreme control, to implement as far as the fluctuating tide of war allowed, the assurances which we had given to the Arabs at the beginning of the campaign, both in the Persian Gulf and in lower Mesopotamia, — assurances which it may be well to emphasise here.
As regards the Persian Gulf, our self-imposed task of maintaining Pax Britannica, had inevitably created for us in the course of several generations a series of treaties and obligations of responsibility towards the Arab rulers on its shores which there could now be no question of our disregarding. We had treaties of old standing with the Sultan of Muscat; with the Sheikhs of the Pirate (now the Trucial) Coast of Oman, with Bahrein, and with the Sheikh of Qatar. We were on intimate terms with Ibn Saud, the Wahabi chieftain of southern Nejd, who in 1913 had succeeded in extending his independent authority to the Coast of the Persian Gulf, and whose future prosperity and success depended mainly on our recognition and sympathetic co-operation in his plans of progress and reform. At the head of the Gulf the Sheikh of Koweit had been assured of our support against any Turkish encroachment on his independence; and finally, on the banks of the Shatt-el-Arab was the Sheikh of Moharnmerah, Arab by race though subject to Persia, who looked to us in view of the commercial stake we enjoyed in his territory to secure fair play for him in his relations alike with Persia and with Turkey.
These close connections of treaty and friendship were an invaluable asset to us when the time came to contemplate the lively probability of Turkey's entry into the War against us; but if an advantage was to be taken of them, it was clearly of primary importance that we should demonstrate to our friends at the outset the circumstances in which war had been forced upon us and should take such prompt action as would convince them that we were alive to the danger in which they would be placed, as friends of ours, and intended to take adequate steps to safe guard their interests as well as our own. Accordingly, the moment news of the outbreak of war with Turkey was received I was instructed to issue a proclamation in the above sense, assuring our Arab friends at the same time that their liberty and religion would be scrupulously respected, and that all we asked of them was that they should preserve order in their own territories and ensure that their subjects indulged in no action calculated to injure British interests. This was followed by a further proclamation guaranteeing to them and to Islam in general that so far as we were concerned, the Holy Places in the area of war should have complete immunity from molestation. With these assurances the Arab potentates were fully satisfied and thus it was that the benevolent Policy pursued by us for many Years past in our dealings with them now found its reward in an unwavering friendship, which was of incalculable value to us throughout the campaign.
Letters From Baghdad Page 52