Page 265 - Gertrude Bell (H.V.F.Winstone)_Neat

faisal’s kingdom 241
the Organic Law ... The enthronement took place at 6am on
Tuesday, admirably arranged. A dais about 2ft 6ins. high was
set up in the middle of the big sarai courtyard; behind it are the
quarters Faisal is occupying, the big Government reception
rooms; in front were seated in blocks, English and Arab
officials, townsmen, Ministers, local deputations ... Exactly at
6 we saw Faisal in uniform, Sir Percy in white diplomatic
uniform with all his ribbons and stars, Sir Aylmer, Mr Corn­
wallis, and a following of ADCs ... We all stood up while they
came in and sat when they had taken their places on the dais.
Faisal looked very dignified but much strung up—it was an
agitating moment. I-Ie looked along the front row and caught
my eye and I gave him a tiny salute. Then Sayid Husain stood
up and read Sir Percy’s proclamation in which he announced
that Faisal had been elected King by 96 per cent of the people
of Mesopotamia, long live the King! With that we stood up
and saluted him. The national flag was broken on the flagstaff
by his side and the band played ‘God Save the King’—they ;
have no national anthem yet. There followed a salute of 21
guns ... It was an amazing thing to see all Iraq, from North
to South gathered together. It is the first time it has happened
in history...

The King was hardly returned to his palace before Gertrude was
taking tea with him and advising him on his domestic arrange­
ments. ‘When we had made Mesopotamia a model Arab state
there was not an Arab of Syria and Palestine who wouldn’t want
to be part of it, and before I died I looked to see Faisal ruling
from the Persian frontier to the Mediterranean ... ’ she told the
King.
A few days before the Coronation she had written to J. E.
Shuckburgh, who had been seconded by the India Office to the
Colonial Office during Churchill’s tenure, complaining bitterly
about a letter to The Times which, she said, was so provoking that
the Under-Secretary would have to forgive her scribbled hand­
writing. She sent him some of her own photographs of life in
Baghdad for publicity purposes, together with an article for
Blacfovood's Magazinei addressed to her mother. ‘I wish we could
reach a far larger public... What we want is cinematographic
films. I feel certain we could get something, with Faisal a central
figure, which would draw our gaping noodles—who, after all,