Page 190 - Gertrude Bell (H.V.F.Winstone)

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GERTRUDE BELL
also saw a good deal of Domnul; *... there was Domnul on the
platform and a Vice-Regal motor waiting outside. You may
imagine my joy!’ But most of her stay in India was taken up with
an attempt to allay Lord Hardinge’s misgivings about the activi­
ties of the Arab Bureau. He had already been told that the Bureau
intended to set up a branch office in Basra. Indeed, three officers
of the body were already making plans to go there on one of the
most extraordinary missions of the war - Admiral Rosslyn
Wemyss, now in command of die Red Sea Fleet and an enthusi­
astic supporter of the schemes of the Bureau, Aubrey Herbert and
T. E. Lawrence. A hard-pressed Sir Percy Cox had already had a
visit from Storrs’s Circassian friend and the chief rival of Enver
Pasha for the leadership of the Young Turks, Aziz al Masri;
having failed in his battle with Enver, al Masri came over to the
Allies’ side and lived in the shade of the Residency at Cairo, but
he was not well received in Basra. The Viceroy had from the
beginning insisted that he wanted no part of the Arab Bureau’s
plans, that he did not approve of its personnel, and that anything
it did or attempted to do was almost certain to cause trouble
among the millions of Muslim subjects in the sub-continent.
India had a special difficulty in this connection. Its Muslim popu­
lation was almost entirely of the orthodox Sunni persuasion which
was upheld, even if it was not dignified, by the Sultan in his
position as Caliph of Islam. Unlike the Shia of Persia and, in the
main, of Mesopotamia, the Sunnis of India had no quarrel with
their Caliph and were not keen to fight against the Turkish army.
Their reluctance was of a very human nature. They knew that if
they went away to fight against the Turks their village priests
would condemn their action so that when they came home they
would be unable to find a place in die community, shunned by
their elders and prospective wives. Yet, in the end, they fought
and distinguished themselves on the battlefields of France and
Mesopotamia. Lord Hardinge had warned, however, that if any-
one was foolish enough, for example, to bombard the coastal
regions of the Holy Hijaz, he might well have a revolution on his
hands. That was the essence of his message to Gertrude. If he was
presented with a fait accompli, however, what about Gertrude her­
self taking on the job of Arab Bureau representative in Basra?
He could trust her, or at any rate his successor designate Lord
Chelmsford could, for he was to retire in two months’ time.
Gertrude was not keen on the idea initially. She had looked forward