Letters From Baghdad

by Bell, Gertrude

  BAGDAD, Sept. 30, 1924.

  ... The evening he arrived (Thursday) there was an official dinner at the Residency. He at once greeted me as sister and after dinner he came and talked. Lord Thomson is certainly very pleasant socially. Next day the King asked me to tea to interpret for him, but there was a circle of Ministers sitting round and the talk was quite on the surface. On Saturday Lord T. flew to Mosul, Sunday all round the N. frontier, Arbil and Kirkuk where he spent the night. On Monday he flew to Sulaimani, had two hours there, flew back to Bagdad and was at the Residency at lunch. Wonderful isn't it! In the evening there was a staff banquet at the Palace — it was amusing, as much as such things can be. The King had his talk afterwards in the garden; Sasun interpreted. Sir Henry told me that Lord T. had been very sympathetic...Lord T. had a tremendous reception at Sulaimani. All the Kurdish chiefs came in to see him with hundreds of followers, sheeted in ammunition belts with revolvers and daggers sticking out from them. The procession was so long that before they had finished the round of the town they were treading on their own tail — a difficult question of precedence arose! Lord T. said he felt like a minor Roman emperor and was conscious that there should have been a man riding by his side to remind him that he must some day die. He flew away this morning.

  The King has acquired an estate near Khanaqin and he invited me to motor up with him today as he wanted to choose a site for a shooting cottage. I have arranged with Sir Henry to go up by tonight's train, arriving about 6 a.m., spend the day with H.M. and return by tomorrow night's train, getting back to the office on Thursday morning. I shall like having a day out of doors — H.M. is in tents — and today for the first time for a month there's a little north wind. I really think the weather may be going to cool down. It has been a very hot, still September... ...

  I've reverted now to a regular Sunday dinner party and bridge. I expect I shall be able to get away very little. But George I shall send up to Mosul with Lionel Smith the week before the Richmonds come. The A.V.M *is going to fly Herbert all round the frontiers and I shall show Elsa and George, and Herbert when he is here, the local sights.

  I'm very much engrossed in the Cambridge Ancient History which certainly is a very remarkable achievement. Its first two volumes have got down to 1000 B.C. It gives one a wonderfully universal idea of the beginnings of history a fascinating book. I'm writing the Mosul part of my guide book, in and out of my work. I wish I had time to go steadily at it. I've wholly failed to discover who now publishes Murray's Guides — could you find out for me and put me into touch with the publishers? It is not either Murray or Stanford, so don't try those blind avenues.

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, Oct. 15th, 1924.

  I have letters from you and Mother of October 1, all about your Free Traders. You are thick in the election and I'm longing to know your views, Upon my soul, I think I would vote Labour if I were in England. The turning out of the Government at a time when the peace of Europe is still on such thin ice seems to me to be such a mean party trick. And the programmes of the Conservatives and Liberals are poor, hackneyed stuff, don't you think?

  [In October of this year Gertrude had the great pleasure of a visit from the Richmonds, Elsa and her husband Vice-Admital Herbert Richmond and their daughter Mary. They were on board the flagship Chatham on one of its official cruises and came up to the Persian Gulf to Basrah and then to Bagdad. This coincided with a visit from George Trevelyan, Molly's elder son who was on his way to stay with the Richmonds in Ceylon and spent a week at Bagdad on the way. His arrival was a great joy to Gertrude. It is worth including some extracts from her letters for the interest of seeing that she who had cared so much for her younger sisters when they were children was ready to welcome their children as if they had been her own.]

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, Oct. 29, 1924.

  I have been a very poor thing this week with a touch of bronchitis- entirely my own fault for going out to dinner when I had a bad cold. However, at last, thank goodness, I'm better and have been doing short hours in the office for the last three days. The disappointment was that I was still in bed when George arrived and could not have him here. I was really crumpled up and Sinbad said I wasn't fit for company, so George went to the Residency, coming to see me every evening after tea. I have written to Moll about him. He is the most enchanting creature. He went off with Lionel Smith to Mosul on Monday night and will be away about a week. The Richmonds arrive next Monday, by which time I hope I shall be quite well.

  There was a heavy fall of rain on Monday night, heavy for the time of year, for we scarcely ever have rain till November. It has cleaned the world wonderfully and made the temperature drop to a reasonable autumn level. To-night, for the first time since February, I have a fire in my sitting room. Summer has passed so rapidly into winter this year that I never wore any intermediate clothes but passed straight out of the thinnest muslin gowns into heavy woollens. It is a difficult climate to tackle. You can't at first believe that you really feel cold.

  The excavations at Kish and Ur are opening — Kish has already begun and Mr. Woolley arrived last Saturday and goes down to Ur to-morrow. We are all frightfully thrilled by the discovery in India by Sir John Marshall of seals which are exactly like Sumerian seals here. I have written to Sir John Marshall asking him for impressions of his seals. I do hope they will have a good season at Ur this year.

  I've so little to write about because I have been seeing so few people. But oh I'm thankful to be getting well again! I do get so dreadfully bored when I'm ill.

  To her sister.

  BAGDAD, October 28th, 1924.

  DARLING MOLL,

  George arrived safely on Saturday at 1:30. I was delighted to see him. We sat hand in hand talking breathlessly.

  He is immensely eager to know and understand and so intelligent and quick in the uptake. He went off after dinner with Lionel Smith to Mosul.

  He is so outgoing and so eager, besides being so charming to look at. I am very proud of having him for a nephew. it was a great disappointment not being able to take him about myself, but next week when he comes back I hope I shall be all right again and we will go about with the Richmonds.

  To the same.

  BAGDAD, November 12th, 1924.

  We had the most delicious days all together when George joined us after his Northern tour ...

  He is wildly interested in everything. He used to sit and listen when Herbert talked of India and I of the Iraq asking us now and then of things he had not understood. He is not going to waste his time on this journey, he will come back full of new impressions and experiences and now the East looms so very large it is worth while to know something about it...

  Well, I hope I have made a new friend with him. I should always like to be in close touch. Last year in England I made a new friend in Pauline and now I've got George. Isn't it nice. Kitty must be next... [Pauline and Kitty Trevelyan.]

  The Chatham sailed from Basrah this morning at ten. I do feel rather flat without them. All my servants adored them and one of them wept when they left.

  To Charles Trevelyan. BAGDAD, December 3, 1924.

  MY DEAR CHARLIE,

  ...He may be too young to appreciate to the full all that he is seeing but I do not doubt that you and Moll have done well to let him make this journey. He may miss a good deal but he will understand a good deal more especially with such a guide as Herbert.

  I do love him very much and I think he has got the makings of a fine and generous creature...

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, Nov. 5, 1924.

  As you may imagine, we have been having rather a rushing time, complicated by the fat that I had only just got out of bed. But I'm really beginning to feel well now.

  The Richmonds all arrived on Saturday. My car broke down on the way to the station so that I didn't succeed in meeting them, but after telephonic communications, they all turned up in my office at 10:30. I took them to the Sarai, showed them the Museum, at which Herbert was t
hrilled; after which we called on several of the Ministers. We all lunched together at my house, and Elsa and I spent the afternoon lying in the garden and talking while Mr. Cooke took Herbert and Mary on some wild round, which they appear to have loved. I had the Prime Minister to dinner, Sasun Eff. and J. M. Wilson — most successful. Elsa and Herbert are universally loved.

  On Sunday we sat about in the sun in my garden till noon, when I took them for a little sightseeing in the town and out to Kadhimain to lunch with the Mayor, Saiyid Jafar — you had tea with him — a nine course lunch. We saw as much of the mosque as one can see. The Sinbads were also of the party and came home to tea. Jafar dined and my Minister, Muzahim, and my ex-Minister, Sabih Bey.

  On Monday morning they went to Ctesiphon and I to the office. We all lunched at the Residency. Esme is back and is being kindness itself, putting her car at our disposal and so forth. After a tea party with the King, the Richmond family dined with the A.O.M., where Herbert is staying, but I didn't go as I felt still rather shaky.

  On Tuesday Herbert flew to Kut and back. Elsa and Mary went shopping carpets with Elsie Sinbad and Mr. Cooke, and we all lunched with the Sinbads. Then I gave a tea — party attended by 10 ladies and two of their daughters, at which Elsa and Mary shone. I hear it is likely to be the talk of the town for the next month. They dined with Jafar — I didn't go.

  This afternoon Elsa, Mary, the King, the Amir Ghazi, Sabih Bey and I all had tea with Haji Naji and walked about his garden — a delicious entertainment. Saiyid Hussain Afnan and his wife are coming to dinner to play Mahjong. Herbert has flown to Mosul and won't be back till Friday. George arrives from his northern tour to-morrow morning and is being put up at the Residency.

  I feel as I did when you were here that it is almost incredible that they should actually be in Bagdad. It is also incredibly delightful. Elsa is so delicious always. She is picking up Arabic and delights everyone with her efforts to talk it. isn't she wonderfully quick and intelligent! And it has been so endlessly enjoyable to have her to talk to. I feel as if I had got things off my mind that had lain on it for months and months. She is amazingly well — never tired, eats enormously and is amused by everything.

  Now I must go and dress for dinner.

  Ever your very affectionate daughter, GERTRUDE.

  To F.B.

  BAGDAD, Nov. 12, 1924.

  ...To act The Verge [acted by Sybil Thorndike in London] really does seem to me to be a supreme adventure. All these modern plays are eagerly borrowed by my colleagues so that I scarcely have time to read them myself...

  I continue to think Elsa perhaps the nicest person in the world — don't you.

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, Dec. 3, 1924.

  ... After lunch, while I was sitting in my garden, there rolled up an American, adviser or ex-adviser to the U.S.A. on the subject of irrigation engineering and he had just been the guest of the Australian and Indian Governments! As he shook hands with me on the garden path, he observed: "I greet the first citizen of Iraq." Gratifying, wasn't it. He then proceeded to talk as ceaselessly as Americans do, but I got a word or two in edgeways. Finally, he said that J.M. (who had sent him to me) had told him I was going to see the King and might he come and present his respects! I was going on my way to a Library Committee so I took him there (it was conducted in Arabic which must have left him cold) and then on to H.M. who received him very graciously and gave him tea, after which he left.

  ...I wonder who he really is. He was all superlatives he had the deepest admiration for and confidence in my great nation; he was convinced that the future of the Iraq as one of the leading cotton growing countries was assured; he could scarcely believe that he was really having the honour of spending an hour with me, etc., etc.

  On Monday — Forget what did, as we used to put in our diaries when we were small...

  To F.B.

  BAGDAD, Dec. 14, 1924.

  I'm going to try to get a letter through by the special Xmas mail though I doubt whether I shall succeed, for it's raining hard this evening and I don't think cars will run to-morrow. Anyhow, if it does get through, this is to wish you all a merry Xmas.

  I've just had the little Amir Ghazi to tea, with his tutor and governess. The train and soldiers I had ordered for him from Harrod's had arrived last mail and were presented, with great success. Especially the train. He loves all kinds of machinery and in fact was much cleverer about the engine than any of us — found out where the brake was and how to Make the engine go backwards or forwards. We all sat on the floor and watched it running along the rails, following it with shouts of joy. Fancy a little Mecca child introduced to the most lovely modern toys! . ...

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, Dec. 10th 1924.

  Your most beloved letter of Nov. 26th — I was glad to have it — it made me feel quite warm inside. I'm perfectly aware that I don't merit so much love, but the nicest thing about love is that you can have it without merit. You mustn't bother, darling, about my health. You are not reckoning with the immense elasticity which comes of being everywhere sound. I shall always be thin — an inherited characteristic; and I would rather anyhow. I don't like fat people. I really did have a very hard and lonely summer and I suppose it temporarily sapped my powers of withstanding heat. But now all my own friends are back it's very different and if we get out shooting at Xmas I shall walk eight hours a day without turning a hair.

  [I am told that Lionel Smith after one of the said shooting parties in which Gertrude was included said that she had outlasted them all in the matter of walking, and was as fresh at the end of the day as when she started.]

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, Dec. 23rd, 1924.

  Yesterday a very interesting thing happened — I went to see the Queen. She's charming, I'm so happy to say. She has the delicate, sensitive Hashimi face (she's his first cousin, you know) and the same winning manner that he has. She had on a very nice, long tunicked brown gown made by the nuns, a long long string of pearls, and a splendid aquamarine pendant. I saw the two eldest girls who are just like her, rather shy but eager to be outgoing, one could see.

  Will you tell Geoffrey Dawson next time you see him that it was a great pleasure to meet Mr. Peterson whom I thought singularly level and unprejudiced. I've no doubt you will see some articles from him in the Times. They will be worth reading.

  Oh dear! isn't it a difficult world.

  I've a growing conviction, Father, that I shall not come on leave next year. Don't be disappointed.

  [These are two of the annual testimonials about Gertrude's work sent to the Colonial Office in 1925.]

  To describe Miss Bell as a complete and accurate encyclopaedia on all matters concerning this country would be true — but inadequate. Her extensive and detailed knowledge of past happenings and existing personalities is sufficient in itself to make her an invaluable colleague. But beyond all this, her keen intellect and her unfailing sympathy for the struggles of the infant Iraq state enable her to play a part that could not be played by anyone else, in ensuring not only the closeness but also the cordiality of the relations between this High Commission (the officials, be they Iraqi or British) and the Iraq Government. I cannot adequately express my gratitude for the assistance I receive from her. B. BOURDILLON.

  Miss Bell's extraordinary abilities and sympathies need no further testimony from me. But I realise them even better than I did last year and am still most grateful to her for all that she has done during the critical time through which we have been passing. H. DOBBS.

  CHAPTER XXV

  1925 - BAGDAD-ENGLAND

  To F.B.

  BAGDAD, Jan., 1925.

  ... I'm turning over in my mind whether I will or I won't write the Iraq book for Benn's Modern World Series. In a wild moment I promised Herbert Fisher nine months ago to do the volume of the Arab States. A month ago I wrote and said I wouldn't...Whereat far from being discouraged they replied that that was all right and wouldn't I write a book about the Iraq only. So I'm r
ather caught for they have already advertised me ...and I feel some reluctance as to letting them down entirely — though far greater reluctance to write the book. Lionel is urging me to do it, and I'm feeling that I haven't enough time energy or knowledge. I'm postponing decision for a week.

  To H.B.

  BAGDAD, Jan. 7th, 1925.

  I've had a week with the Queen and her court, culminating in her first reception to-day. On Saturday morning I went up to talk to her about it and on Saturday afternoon I took Esme to see her.

  What with this and with preparing reports for the League of Nations delegation, I've been busy. But I did have a holiday last Friday — the only one of the season. We all went out shooting, Baqubah way — Bernard and Ken and I, Col. Joyce and Major Maclean. We started at 6:30 in freezing bitter cold and when we got out into the country it was still colder, the whole world white with hoar frost and all the waters frozen. But we enjoyed it tremendously — it looked so lovely, the green palm gardens against the white frost. We ran to the beats to keep ourselves warm and we returned 12 hours later with a bag of 150, geese, duck and snipe.

  On New Year's Day, in the intervals of receiving the visits of Ministers, I made a little account of the year's expenditure. I have spent in all some 560 pounds over and above my salary. of this, 230 (in round figures) is the cost of living here above my salary and another 79 is goods from England — also cost of living, therefore. 90 for books, papers, seeds and bulbs for my garden and various little odds and ends of that sort, and 160 for clothes — that is to say, gloves, shoes, hats, silks or stuffs for Marie to make up, for I have had no new clothes from home. On the whole I don't think it has been an extravagant year — do you?

  In the afternoon Iltyd Clayton and I went to call on two Syrian families, friends of his, one Christian and one Moslem, but they all live together. It is very interesting, the little group of Syrians here. They are almost all in Govt. employment, like Hussain Afhan — a good many of them are teachers in the schools. They are making a little social revolution of their own, for the women, even if they are Moslems, are educated and behave as far as they can like European women. It is the thin edge of the wedge and I need not say that I am all in its favour.