Letters From Baghdad

by Bell, Gertrude

  BAGDAD, December 4th, 1922.

  Do you know-apropos of nothing at all-that I've been four times mentioned in dispatches for my valuable and distinguished services in the field! It came to me as a surprise — indeed it is singularly preposterous — when I counted up the documents in order to fill up a Colonial Office Form. I hadn't realised there were so many. Apparently one of the fields I distinguished myself in was Palestine, for I was mentioned by Sir Reginald Wingate...

  I sent you by post the yearly report to the S. of S., a very silly sort of Xmas present. I wrote all the first general chapter and the next on administration, then the chapters on refugees and foreign relations. The other bits came from the respective departments. Mr. Slater's financial chapter is interesting and Mr. Davidson's judicial chapter. It was a tidy job putting it all together, but interesting.

  To F.B.

  BAGDAD, December 5th, 1922.

  Isn't it a shocking thing that four years after the armistice we should still see the world in such confusion ...

  But I would not have done what I'm doing here. I often wonder whether it is very selfish of me to have gone on with it. Life here has drawbacks, of course; there are long moments when I feel very lonely, but the work has been so interesting that as far as I am concerned I couldn't have experienced better or even as good, a destiny. My present plans are to come home on leave in May, arriving towards the end of the month If Sir Henry Dobbs wants me to return I should probably like to do so for another winter at any rate, but of course that's for him to say.

  I can't think what it would have been like not to have had you and father taking such an interest in our doings, but this I know that you have added immensely to the pleasure of them. To write to you about them has been half the battle and you never seem bored however much I write.

  December 7th. Sir Percy is still dallying in the Persian Gulf, not without profit, however, for he has got the Nejd-Iraq treaty ratified which Ibn Saud had refused to do. I knew I.S. would come round directly Sir Percy put the matter to him. What an amazing influence has my chief.

  A very happy Xmas and all good things. The love of your children is always with you and I can't think that any of them can love you more than your daughter, Gertrude.

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, December 16th, 1922.

  Sir Percy came back on the 11th with treaties all signed and finished in his hands. Ibn Saud is coming to the Iraq in the Spring to visit the King under Sir Percy's auspices. Sabih Bey, ex-Minister of Works, who went with Sir Percy as the King's representative told me that the matter is finished, that Sir Percy was magnificent and that Ibn Saud is convinced that the future of himself and his country depends on our goodwill and that he will never break with us. In point of fact the treaty is on exactly the lines that Sir Percy stipulated. I was glad to see him. It makes an immense difference having him back...

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, December 18th, 1922.

  Major Young asked me whether I would accept appointment as Oriental Secretary, with the rest of Sir Percy's staff, till Oct. 1923 (which is to be the date of Sir Percy's own appointment). I said I would. So that's how matters stand. I shall hold the appointment till Sir Percy leaves at any rate. Major Young suggested that his successor might like me to stay on for a bit so as not to make a complete change all at once. I said, other things being equal, I should probably be able to do that, but of course it would depend largely on who the successor might be, and at that we left it. It has turned out very much as I should have wished because it's they who have asked me to stay and not I who am clinging on. I made it very clear to Major Young that I wasn't clinging on if they did not want me. What a strange political career I've had, to be sure...Oh for peace — peace at any price, I could almost say. I wonder if any generation was so weary of strife as we are. Jafar Pasha dropped into the office this morning for a talk. I wish there were more people of his integrity and moderation...Jafar's fidelity and devotion to the King are really beautiful. I know the man in every aspect and he is equally delightful in his affectionate chivalry towards his womenfolk, his adoration of his children and his fervent loyalty to Faisal, whom he regards (as indeed, I do also) as the one man who can lead the Arab cause to success.

  We've another problem looming on our Southern borders. You know that Ibn Saud has captured Hayil, thereby changing the balance of Arabian politics. His frontier now runs with that of the Iraq and it's as yet an undefined frontier. Sir Percy has invited him to come into conference with himself and Faisal at the earliest possible moment, and I've been laying out on the map what I think should be our desert boundaries. There's nothing I should like so much as to attend that conference of Kings but I don't suppose for a moment that Sir Percy will take me... ...

  The conquest of Hayil will have far-reaching consequences. It will bring Ibn Saud into the theatre of trans-Jordanian politics and probably into the Franco-Syrian vista also — it's difficult as yet to see with what results. I should, however, feel much greater anxiety if I weren't so certain of Sir Percy" power to guide him. It's really amazing that anyone should exercise influence such as his...I don't think that any European in history has made a deeper impression on the Oriental mind...

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, December 31st, 1922.

  [Gertrude gives an account of a shooting party consisting of Mr. Davidson, Mr. Cornwallis and Major Murray besides herself.)

  Our destination, the Shamiyah channel of the Euphrates, which runs parallel to the Mishkhab ...We poled up the river, stopping at any likely place on the banks to get out and shoot.

  The Shamiyah Channel is much more beautiful than the Mishkhab. Willows and Euphrates poplars fringe the river, their red gold and amber frothing round the stiff green palms. The little straw villages lie closely in these woods and the white sails glitter down the river. Over all was a glorious sun shining through fresh keen air and we, plunging through the willows and the russet scrub, jumping over or into innumerable water courses, felt again the vigorous enchantment of that delightful place, the world...

  At 4 a.m. we were up again and after a hasty cup of tea jumped into our boats and paddled down to the Hor. It was wonderful in the still night. The only sound was the talking of the geese, whom we were out to kill. But we didn't kill them — they were a great deal too many for us. Dawn was just beginning to break as we reached the Hor, the flocks of geese Were rising with immense chatter and disturbances, stringing out in long beautiful patterns across the pale sky, but ever so far above our heads. In the cold dawn we jumped out of our boats on to a wide desolate island in the middle of the Hor. There we scattered and finding what cover we could, lay and Watched the geese flighting. They were never really within shot, but that didn't make any difference to the beauty of it and for my part I couldn't tire of seeing the kingfishers hunting for their breakfast in their delightful fashion...

  Christmas day was perhaps the best day we had, weather and sport and good spirits. We went by boat down the river, shooting all the way, till we got to the mouth of a loop canal, the Abu Tibn (Father of Straw) on which lives the paramount Sheikh of the Khazail...What we wanted to do was to shoot duck on the Hor, not to speak of geese, and we went out in tiny canoes...It was a delicious Hor full of beautiful flowering reeds and alive with water-birds — not much less alive after our visit I'm sorry to say. We got to the other side after sunset. The geese and ducks were flighting in thousands but all in the top of the sky. Nevertheless it was enchanting coming back under the moon and stars across the quiet Hor. The reeds brushed your boat softly, a sleepy goose raised his voice, a coot bustled over the water with noisy awkward flight and you lay in your boat and listened and wondered...And at mid-day on Thursday 28th, we were back in Bagdad, disgracefully sun and wind burnt, cheerful, fat and healthy...

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, January 16th, 1923.

  The chief news is that Sir Percy is going home by this air mail to help the Cabinet to come to a conclusion about Iraq policy...It is far mor
e satisfactory that he in person should go and put the whole case to the authorities, for you see, even if they don't want to shoulder the burden they have got to learn that it's amazingly difficult to let it drop with a bump. Even the evacuation of Mosul would mean, I am convinced that we should be faced with the problem of sixty to seventy thousand Christian refugees...

  It is almost impossible to believe that a few years ago the human race was more or less governed by reason and considered consequences, before it did things. I don't feel reasonable myself — how can one when political values are as fluctuating as the currency? ...At the back of my mind I have a feeling that we people of the war can never return to complete sanity. The shock has been too great; we're unbalanced. I am aware that I myself have much less control over my own emotions than I used to have. I don't really feel certain about what I might do next and I can only hope that the opportunity for doing impossibly reckless things won't arise, if it did I should probably do them; at least I can't be sure I shouldn't...

  It will be dreadfully flat when I return to London, not to be consulted about all Cabinet appointments!

  Next came Sir Henry Dobbs for a good talk for which we really hadn't yet had an opportunity and we discussed Mesopotamia and history since the early days of the Occupation.

  On Tuesday 9th I went to Diwaniyah with Major J. M. Wilson and Major Jefferies. Our object was to see the mound of Niffar which we did on the following day...Niffar is by far the most striking site I've seen here. It's so enormously big and the temple pyramid soars so high above the plain. Moreover you get a very clear impression of the topography of the town, from the old Nil canal, the forerunner of the Dagharah, cut through it, and it's easy to picture the huge temple with its library and divinity school on one bank and the commercial city on the other...you see in section age after age of civilization extending over a period of three or four thousand years. It's amazing and rather horrible to be brought face to face with millenniums of human effort and then to consider what a mess we've made of it, as I remarked above...

  I got back to my house feeling as if I had travelled in nightmare trains for 10,000 hours at least.

  I've been pretty busy these last two days picking up threads, writing reports for the mail and preparing things which Sir Percy wants to take with him. It's always the greatest pleasure to work for him and the fact remains that whatever I may do in the future I shall never have a chief whom I serve more whole heartedly than I serve him. The sense that one has gained his confidence, is I think the thing that I'm more proud of than anything else. He has, you know, been an angel of kindness and consideration to me...

  To-night as I was coming back from the office very dirty and tired, I met Sir John Salmond and Air Commodore Borton on their doorstep and they dragged me in to a very Merry tea...I'm much attached to the Air Force; they have the same sort of charm that sailors have, they are so keen and so busy with their job, and it's a job that they are always at, just as sailors are. And they are so amazingly gallant. The things that they've done in this country without anything said about them, might be a theme for epics.

  To H.B.

  January 18th.

  ...I'm very glad to gather from your letter of Dec. 27th that there's every prospect of my predeceasing you, which is what I should wish to do. The world would be a poor place without you. I must have a talk with Sir Henry one day about plans, As at present arranged I've engaged berths for Marie and me on a ship that leaves Bombay on May 5th. ...Meantime I must break to Sir Henry that I'm going on leave and find out whether he wants me to come back. I don't like going just as he takes over but apart from seeing my family I think three consecutive summers here is enough...

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, January 30th, 1923.

  ...Seven years I've been at this job of setting up an Arab State. If we fail it's little consolation to me personally that other generations may succeed, as I believe they must...

  I've been rather busy with archaeology. First I had long reports about Ur to write for my Minister and for the local papers and next I've had to tackle the Oxford University expedition to Kish — I was promised a field worker and an epigraphist and on that agreed to ask my Minister for a concession, and lo and behold, one solitary man turns up...

  I feel convinced that no one, however good, can undertake single handed so big a work as the excavation of Kish, so I've held up the concession and telegraphed for the advice of the joint Committee which is the highest archaeological authority at home — for convenience, I'm a member of it...

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, February 13th, 1923.

  The relations between the Arabs and the British General Staff are most satisfactory. In times of stress like the present, Sir John takes supreme command of all forces and they work together without the slightest friction...

  It was a delicious soft spring day yesterday and I rode out. To-day it has poured steadily almost all day, the heaviest rain we have had this month and very welcome though I tremble to think of the mud to-morrow. The streets were lakes this afternoon. And I had to run round with the Committee of the Salain Library and put off a performance we were going to have at the Cinema to-morrow for the benefit of the Library, because we felt sure that in this mud no one would come...

  To-day, the roads have at last recovered from the rain. I rode down to Karradah and found the first apricots in flower in Haji Naji's garden. I have a bunch of flowering branches in my room now...

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, March 1, 1923.

  Will you please do something for me. The King (with whom I've just been having tea) is in perplexity as to how to furnish a big room in the little palace that has just been built — a reception room. It's an awkward shape for it was meant for a dining room — 170 paces long by about 70 wide with a monumental fireplace on one of the long sides. I've suggested that it must be somehow broken up in furnishing it and that he ought to make a central sitting place in the middle, opposite the fireplace, with three big handsome sofas, the middle one the most imposing. In this dusty country it's better to have furniture rather simple in pattern as otherwise it's difficult to clean, and we think that if we had some good drawings or pictures we could make it here. So could you perhaps send us a selection of catalogues or drawings from some of the best London shops by next air mail? We could get chairs and tables out of them too and make something that would do for the present. ...

  I went to Ur with Major Wilson. They are closing down for the season and we had to go in person and divide the finds between the diggers and the Iraq...

  It took us the whole day to do the division but it was extremely interesting and Mr. Woolley was an angel. We had to claim the best things for ourselves but we did our best to make it up to him and I don't think he was very much dissatisfied. We, for our part, were well pleased. The best object is a hideous Sumerian statue of a King of Lagach, about three feet high but headless.

  It has a long inscription across the shoulder in which they have read the King's name, but it will go back to London to be completely deciphered and then return to us...

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, April 10th, 1923.

  Thank you a thousand times for all the trouble you took about the King's furniture. He is delighted with the pictures. Major Wilson and I are going to have a great talk with him to-morrow and decide what he shall order ...

  Sir Percy arrived safely on the 31st ...We're satisfied he thinks Parliament will agree to the scheme of the Cabinet Committee and that we can pull through on that though the economic conditions will be very difficult for the first few years. It's also settled that I should come back in September. I hate going away while the thing is still so much in the melting pot, but apart from my wish to see my family, I don't think I ought to stay a fourth summer on end and I shall come back more competent, we'll hope, to carry on the job...

  Talking of archaeologists, isn't it terrible about Lord Carnarvon. And so extraordinarily tiresome that people should be given an opportunity
to say it's a curse...

  The floods have gone down, but it will be months before the desert East of Bagdad is dry. It is still a great sea of muddy water. They are digging a great cutin to the Diala to drain it off...

  April 11th. We had a terrific day yesterday beginning with a great rush of work in the office, then at 12:30 an enormous lunch given by the Iraq Army. There were sports afterwards, but I got away early following H.M. who had commissioned Major Wilson and me to come and talk about the furniture...

  To F.B.

  BAGDAD, April 24th, 1923.

  I went to Hillah for the night on the 14th with Major Wilson and Dr. Herzfeld. We stayed with the Longriggs that night and next morning motored out about an hour to the East to see the excavations at Kish — I was inspecting, you understand. We found that Mr. Mackay had done a great deal of work at one of the mounds — the one for which I had got him a permit — but it was almost certainly not the oldest part of Kish which lies under another mound about a mile away. This second mound is covered with very ancient plans — convex bricks and very ancient pottery. I'm getting permission for him to do some preliminary work there...

  Haji Naji gave a luncheon party in his garden last Sunday to Sir Percy. In spite of its being Ramadhan several of the Ministers came — scarcely any of them are fasting. It was a very charming little function and Haji Naji's sorrow at parting with Sir Percy goes to my heart. But fortunately he has made great friends with Sir Henry.

  The hot weather has come in with a burst the last two days. The entertainments to Sir Percy continue. Yesterday we had in immense tea party in a garden — it was given by the Indian Mercantile community...To-day there's a dinner of 200 people given by the civil community of Bagdad of whom I'm one. I'm one of four who propose the health of Sir Percy, Sir Henry, the A.V.M. and Col. Slater being the other three. How he'll hate our all talking about him.

  All this time rather tears the heart strings, you understand, it's very moving saying good-bye to Sir Percy...We had the annual election of members of the Library Committee this Week. I came out top. Last year I was third. They never elect any other European. That's the sort of thing that makes it difficult to leave.