Page 269 - Gertrude Bell (H.V.F.Winstone)

faisal’s kingdom *43
native government took over in the country. To discuss them
with the Iraq authorities would, he thought, be unnecessary.
However, Faisal was anxious to protect the country’s archaeo­
logical heritage and in October the Cabinet appointed Gertrude
honorary Director of Archaeology. The department of Antiqui­
ties was part of the Ministry of Works under her friend Sabih Bey,
and so she was able to work amicably with the Iraqi side in what
was in some ways the most apposite task of her entire life, though
it was perhaps a comedown from her role of kingmaker. To her
credit, Gertrude stood by the German claim to a share of the
treasures, while T. E. Lawrence advised the Foreign Office that
they should all go to the British Museum. As the archaeological
expeditions of Europe and America returned to the country, and
her Carchemish acquaintance of pre-war days Sir Leonard Woolley
came to excavate the mounds of Ur, she assumed the responsibility
for ensuring that the old methods of haphazard and competitive
digging for treasures and the unfair apportionment of the finds
was replaced by an orderly approach in which Iraq received its
proper share of the spoils.
There was still strength and physical endurance in her slender
frame and every day she went riding and swimming. A1 Khatun
remained the most familiar sight in Baghdad, loved by the Arabs
and increasingly estranged from her own people. During 1922, at
a time when Cox was preparing his last major diplomatic act in the
East—a conference at Ujair on the A1 Hasa coast to fix the boun­
daries of Iraq, Syria, Transjordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia—the
Syrian writer Ameen Rihani turned up in Baghdad. He was
travelling around the peninsula in the hope of meeting Ibn Saud.
But his first call was on Faisal, established in his temporary palace
on the east bank of the Tigris. He found the King of Iraq in a sour
mood as far as Britain and Gertrude were concerned. He did not
like the terms of the proposed Anglo-Iraq treaty and he blamed
her for allowing it to be imposed on him. Afterwards, Rihani
crossed the river to the High Commission where he was received
by Gertrude.

The Iraqis call her Khatun, that is a lady of the court who keeps
an open eye and ear for the benefit of the State. I found Miss Bell
had two other loyal troopers—her tongue and her mind-and
the manner of being quite at home in Baghdad. Her figure is quite
English — tall and lank; her face is aristocratic—rather long and
R