CHAPTER XX
1921 - BAGDAD
To H.B.
BAGDAD, January 3rd, 1921.
The big Dulaim Chiefs who live in tents all the winter (only Ali Sulaiman lives in a house outside Ramadi) inhabit during the summer dwellings which are unknown elsewhere. They are called Mahrab and they are, as you might say, the mud counterpart of a tent — a long narrow room with very thin mud walls, windowless, but low down in the North wall just where your head comes when you are sitting on the floor a line of little openings made in patterns by the omission of mud bricks at regular intervals, so that the north wind blows in to cool you. Some square openings at the top of the wall takes off the hot air and they say the room keeps wonderfully fresh. In the men's room the East end is left open and terminates in an open — air diwan, a mud floor with a low wall round it, where they sit at night; but by day it can't be as cool as the women's room which is closed on all sides. No one builds these Mahrab but the Dulaim.
Hit on its ancient mound with the pitch wells bubbling up around it, is like nothing else in Mesopotamia, but to me its too full of the memories of rollicking journeys, of ghosts, riding about on camels before the world which was my world cracked together and foundered. I don't think I'll go there again, I don't like the look of those ghosts — they are too happy and confident. It's I who feel a ghost beside them.
We walked round the town in the afternoon and amused ourselves by getting one of the pitch wells alight. The gas laden water came bubbling up, carrying with it writhing black snakes of pitch which form a crust on the pool. We threw in a lighted newspaper and the gas flamed and flickered over the bubbling pool, as if the water burned; then suddenly, after we had watched this devil's miracle for a long time, a thick pitch snake struggled up, and choked for a moment the bubbling water and gas, and the flame went out. Two boys were drawing off the pitch crust, twisting and breaking it off like toffee (a very difficult trick though it looks easy enough in their skilled hands — from father to son they've been at the job some 5,000 years) and throwing it up to where a donkey stood waiting for his load...
North of Hit is No Man's Land. Since we withdrew, the tribes rob and loot all passers by and each man's hand is against his neighbour. Emissaries of Mustafa Kemal drift down through this chaos and Hit has the whole unrest of Asia at its doors...
Upon my soul I'm glad I don't know what this year is going to bring, I don't think I ever woke on a first of January with such feelings of apprehension. You can struggle through misfortune and failure, when they approach you slowly — you see them coming and gradually make up your mind to the inevitable. But if the future opened suddenly and you knew when you woke on the first of January all that lay before you it would be overwhelming. For the truth is there's little that Promises well...
Perceive that I'm not your daughter for nothing for the only fitting end to this tirade is a "God bless my soul — how any sane," etc.! I do write long letters don't I father ...aren't fools damnable.
To H.B.
BAGDAD, January 22nd, 1921.
I've just got Mother's letter of December 15th saying there s a fandango about my report. The general line taken by, the Press seems to be that its most remarkable that a dog Should be able to stand up on it's hind legs at all — i.e., a female write a white paper. I hope they'll drop that source of wonder and pay attention to the report itself, if it will help them to understand what Mesopotamia is like...
Talib seems to me to be doing very well. He put up to the Council the other day a long list of proposals for administration appointments in the provinces, Mutasarrifs and Kaimakams. It is very essential to get these appointments made so that people in the provinces may see Arab officials stepping in and realise that there is an Arab Government...
I've a feeling that we're making good progress. There's a greater sense of stability, the Arab Government is gaining ground and people begin to see that we really intend to do by it all we say. Poor human kind that has to spend so much of its time in trying to convince its fellows of the loyalty of its motives! ...Our task has been complicated by the fact that there was so much suspicion to get over. I know most of the people we are now working with trust us and that's a beginning...
We had to go to the funeral of the woman who was Matron in chief during the war and had come back here to help up with the organisation of our civil hospital...But as Matron in chief she was a tower of strength and I personally loved her for all her kindness to me, beginning from the time when I had jaundice in Basrah and not a soul to look after me. She was an angel of goodness, poor Miss Jones ...and they gave her a military funeral with the bugle call of the last Post and the salute of rifles into the empty air. And I hoped as I walked behind the Union Jack that covered her coffin that when people walked behind my coffin it would be with thoughts even dimly resembling those that I gave to her...
To H.B.
BAGDAD, Jan. 22nd, 1921.
We have had a distracted week on account of the races. I didn't intend to go more than one day, but the first day Thursday, Aurelia telephoned and said I must come, so I went with them. There was a pretty good sprinkling of Bagdad Magnates and I thought it fairly amusing, so I went again to-day and was very much amused ...It was Cup Day, I must tell you; we didn't go till after lunch but the Coxes went in state at 11 a.m. and stayed the whole day. Sir Percy wore a frock coat and a grey top hat to the admiration of all beholders. I may mention that I was also very smart in a Paris hat and gown — it's really quite nice to dress up for once, a thing I haven't done for months...
I hear rumours that the Sunnis of Bagdad are considering whether it wouldn't suit their book best to have a Turkish prince as King. They are afraid of being swamped by the Shiahs, against whom a Turk might be a better bulwark than a son of the Sharif. The present Government which is predominantly Sunni isn't doing anything to conciliate the Shiahs. They are now considering a number of administrative appointments for the provinces; almost all the names they put up are Sunnis, even for the wholly Shiah province on the Euphrates, with the exception of Karbala and Nejd where even they haven't the face to propose Sunnis...
Sir Percy will have to intervene when the names come up to him for sanction, for if anything is certain it is that the Euphrates won't put up with Sunni officials. They must make up their minds that they can't have it both ways. If they want popular native institutions, the Shiahs, who are in a large majority, must take their share. There are a number of leading Shiahs on the Euphrates who would prefer British administration (which they can't have) to an Arab Sunni administration or a Turkish Sunni. But when it comes to the point the Moslem never dares to raise his voice against the Moslem, even if it's a kind of Moslem he hates. I believe if we could put up a son of the Sharif at once, he might yet sweep the board; if we hesitate, the tide of public opinion may turn overwhelmingly to the Turks...
To H.B.
BAGDAD, Jan. 30th, 1921.
Do you know this is the eighth Xmas I've been away — 1913 Arabia, 1914 Boulogne, 1915 Egypt, 1916 Bastah and the rest Bagdad. Extraordinary isn't it...
To H.B.
BAGDAD, Feby. 7th, 1921.
We've had a rather stormy week owing to heated disagreement between two of the Advisors ...over the question of how to dispose of the Arab Levies (sort of Gendarmerie). They excited their respective ministers...to such a pitch that it was a question whether Sasun wouldn't resign when the decision of the Council went against his voice and the Levies were placed under the Interior instead of under Defence. The decision was a wrong one, I think, but it didn't very much matter, so long as they were placed under some Arab Ministry at once for we want them to take over in the middle Euphrates when British troops are withdrawn from there, as they will be in a fortnight or so...
The Council has made a number of appointments to administrative posts in the provinces — Mutasarrifs and Kaimmakams. Most of them are pretty good, some of them pretty bad. Sir Percy gives way when the Naqib insists. I think he is quite right. We ha
ve got to sit by and see them make mistakes. The appointments all originate in the Interior.
To H.B.
BAGDAD, Feb. 13th, 1921.
I write you such long letters because its the only form of Diary I keep. ...
It has been an interesting week marked first by the return of some twenty or more of the deportees whom A.T. sent to the Henjam including one of the ringleaders from Bagdad. And the very next day his son was arrested with a batch of other agitators who owned, wrote or inspired the Istiqlal — of which I sent you extracts last week. The suppression of the paper had been for some time under discussion but Sir Percy said rightly that it was for the Ministry of Interior to take action. It seems to have been entirely successful...
The present Government has got no hold in the Provinces but I think it is gaining ground here...
I don't know what hanky panky the Allies are up to about the mandates, but I'm all on the side of the League of Nations in protesting that they must be made public. That's the essence of them, publicity...
I'm often wrong in prophecy but I believe if we were to refuse the mandate we should have a clamour through the country begging us to accept it...
Meantime the Shiah question is a very burning one. Everyone from the Euphrates provinces says the people there won't accept Sunni officials and the Council goes on blandly appointing them...A Shiah of Karbala has at last accepted the ministry of Education which the Naqib was induced to offer him...
Another burning question is that of general amnesty. I feel sure the time has come, or is very near, when we must proceed to this. It will be bitterly opposed by the Military authorities.
...I want to have the kudos of taking the steps ourselves and not to look like one who gives way to pressure from the Arabs. We never do things in time. Sir Percy is very stiffly determined to do what he thinks right, no matter how many soldiers protest, more power to him. For as he rightly says its he who is responsible...
Anyway Sir Percy is standing out firmly about the Shiah appointments...
The other event of the week besides the suppressing of the Istiqlal, is the arrival of an emissary from Ibn Saud. Ahmad Thanayan is a relation of the Imam and was with his son Faisal in England in 1919. He was brought up in Constantinople and even knows a little French. A very delicate ailing man of about 30, with the fine drawn Najd face, full of intelligence and drawn yet finer by ill health. He has with him Ibn Saud's doctor, Abdullah Ibn Said, a Mosuli by origin, educated in Constantinople... They have come to discuss the interminable Question of Ibn Saud's quarrel with the Sharif — for which I think there's no solution; we can only hold it in suspense...and I had them to dinner to-night. It was the most interesting and curious dinner party I ever gave. Besides the two Najdis I had Major Eadie, Saiyid Muhi ud Din and Shakri Eff. al Arusi. The latter is one of the finest figures in Bagdad. An old scholar who comprises in himself all knowledge as such is understood by Islam — he teaches Mechanics, using the Hadith (traditions of the prophet) as text book and other sciences by like methods — a true Wahhabi, he neither drinks nor smokes, and he is the only known Mohammadan who has never married...He found in Wahhabi, Central Arabia the land of his dreams and looks upon it as the true source of all inspiration and learning. When he came in he fell on Ahmad Thanayan's neck while the latter fished among his beautiful embroidered cashmiri robes and produced from them a letter from Ibn Saud to Shukri. And to crown the cordiality of the gathering, Muhi ud Din discovered in the Doctor a former Constantinople acquaintance, and the embracing began afresh on their part. So we sat down to table — as queer a gathering as you could well see; Shukri, the unworldly old scholar, hanging on Ahmad Thanayan's words while the latter described the immense progress of the extreme Wahhabi sect, the Akhwan, (brotherhood) in Najd; Muhi ud Din, the smooth politician and divine,...and Abmad with his long sunken face lighted up by the purest spirit of fanatical Islam. "The Imam, God preserve him, under God has guided the tribes in the right way,"- "Praise be to God," ejaculated Shukri — "They are learning wisdom and religion under the rules of the Brotherhood," — Shukri Eff: "God is great ...Not that they show violence," — Ahmad Effend. "God forbid," — "No such things happen among us as happened in Europe with the Inquisition and with Calvins" — (I must tell you incidentally that the Akhwan when they do battle kill all wounded and then put the women and children of their enemies, who are also infidels else they wouldn't fight the Ahkwan, to death ...) After dinner my four Arab guests carried on a brisk conversation among themselves. They discussed medicines and the properties of herbs, the doctor, incidentally, stating that incense was a capital disinfectant, they discussed the climate and customs of Najd and other matters of importance. Major Eadie and I sat listening and I felt as if we were disembodied spirits playing audience to an Oriental symposium, so entirely did our presence fail to impede the flow of talk which the learned men of the East are accustomed to hold with one another. Muhi ud Din played the game with the perfection of courtesy, but when they all went away, he last, I whispered in his ear "For all that I shall not join the brotherhood," "Nor I," he whispered back fervently. It's an interesting world I'm living in isn't it? ...
To H.B.
On the way to Cairo] February 24th, 1921.
On the Tigris boat and continued on the Hardinge
We're off and I've put off writing this week till I got on to the ship as any way I shall carry a letter myself quicker than the post would carry it...
The last week has seen the first arrival of a new element, the Mesopotamian officers who were in Syria are beginning to return, the first to come being Nuri Pasha Said, Jafar's brother-in-law. He came last week...The day after his arrival Jafar telephoned to me and asked when Nuri could see Sir Percy. Sir Percy asked them to come at once and stay to lunch. They came at 12 and sat for an hour with me. I called up Capt. Clayton, who knew and liked Nuri in Syria; Major Murray dropped in and we had a momentous talk. The moment I saw him I realised that we had before us a strong and supple force with which we must either use or engage in difficult combat. We began very gently feeling the ground as we went; my first questions he answered very warily; then as I persisted, he took his line and in a few sentences developed his Programme — the summoning of the constituent assembly which was to perform four tasks: (1) to appoint a Cabinet, (2) to select a ruler, (3) to pass a law authorising some form of conscription for the Arab Army, (4) to design a flag. "That's all right," said we, and proceeded to discuss the points in detail...
[There are no letters from Gertrude during the Conference — Her father joined her in Cairo for a while.]
To H.B.
BAGDAD, April 12th, 1921.
I spent the whole of next day, Sunday, getting through Papers in the office and came back to tea, and a number of visitors, mostly European. Yesterday and to-day have been very busy days with a great deal of work and a great many callers. Faisal arrives at Suez to-morrow so that in a week or ten days we ought to be receiving the telegrams he is to address to his supporters announcing his candidature. By that time Sir Percy ought to be able to make a fuller pronouncement for he will have received permission from Mr. Churchill who will have consulted the Cabinet at home. Things should therefore begin to move pretty quickly. ...
To F.B.
BAGDAD, April 16th, 1921.
Will you send me some thick woollen tricotine of a blue as near as may be to the enclosed colour, enough for Marie to make me a winter everyday gown, jumper and skirt. Also some soft blue silk on which to mount the skirt, the same colour. Further will you give a pattern of the blue to my hat maker, Anne Marie in Sloane Street, and tell her to send me by parcel post a blue felt hat — she knows the kind of shape like the green felt she made for me last year trimmed with reddish brown wings, pheasant would do or a red brown feather trimming of some kind. Not ostrich feathers, that's too dear.
To H.B.
BAGDAD, April 17th, 1921.
...There was a rumour — that on the way down to Basrah when we went away, I
had said to persons not named that the object of the conference was to declare Faisal King ...it was entirely untrue, but no doubt he knows that formerly when people pressed me to give my own opinion I have always said that Faisal would I thought be the best choice. I am therefore identified as a Sharifian, which I don't mind at all, but I have always been careful to say that the choice must rest with the people, and I am now careful to keep my private opinion for the present to myself...
Meantime telegrams are going daily to the King of the Hijaz begging him to send one of his sons. The functions of the Arab Ministers will be carried on by the Advisors (British). We have not yet received the telegram promised by Mr. Churchill after he had consulted with the Cabinet; we are not therefore at liberty to make public that Faisal has H.M.G's consent to run as a candidate, but I felt sure that some announcement about the conference could not be delayed and I got Sir Percy to publish a preliminary statement. It contains nothing about the elections but it says that a general amnesty will be declared very shortly and this has been received with acclamation...In a very short time therefore important new factors should have entered into the game : Faisal himself with his declared candidature, the pardoned leaders of last year's revolt, the Sharifian paper and the suspension of the Arab ministers ...
Meantime the general attitude of the country with regard to ourselves has immensely improved. There's a consensus of opinion that whatever happens they can't do without our guidance and help. Being Sunday, I rode down early this morning to Haji Naji and had breakfast with him on native bread, fresh unsalted butter, sugared apples and coffee. He is hand in glove with the Sharifians, thinks Naji, Nuri, Jafar and Co., the best Mesopotamians he knows and is convinced that the overwhelming majority in the country is for Faisal. Said he with his customary wisdom, "Let the people do it themselves; the British Government need not interfere." It is so restful and delicious sitting with him under his fruit trees which were in flower when I left and are now loaded with green fruit. It was a heavenly morning and hot sun and a cool little north wind...I'm happy in helping to forward what I Profoundly believe to be the best thing for this country and the wish of the best of its people...
Letters From Baghdad Page 61