Page 141 - Life of Gertrude Bell

HAIL 127
angrily resisting the attempt to make him the kainakam of the
Sultan in lands over which he ruled as the strongest and most
widely respected prince of the desert. Captain W. H. I. Shakespear,
the Political Agent in Kuwait and Ibn Saud’s bosom friend, had
been deputed to negotiate on Britain’s behalf with the ruler of
Najd and he had fought a long and angry battle with his own
government on the Arab chief’s behalf. Now, Whitehall had
reluctantly agreed that Shakespear should be allowed to make a
journey of exploration across the peninsula from Kuwait to
Aqaba, calling at Riyadh on the way in order to placate the angry
and defiant Ibn Saud. It would have been the height of folly for
anyone else to have attempted such a journey at that time.
Thus Gertrude and Captain Shakespear set out for central
Arabia at almost exactly the same time, she heading for the
capital of Jabal Shammar, home of the Rashid, the usurping
family which Ibn Saud had thrown out of Riyadh twelve years
before.

If she left England with a heavy heart in 1913, Gertrude’s
resilient nature came partly to her rescue. Within a month of
Doughty-Wylie’s departure, and within two weeks of setting off
for the East herself, she wrote to her father:

Last night I went to a delightful party at the Glenconners’ and
just before I arrived (as usual) 4 suffragettes set on Asquith and
seized hold of him. Whereupon Alec Laurence in fury seized
two of them and twisted their arms until they shrieked. Then
one of them bit him in the hand till he bled. And when he
told me the tale he was steeped in his own gore. I had a great
triumph on Monday. I got Edwin Montagu to lunch to meet
Major O’Connor and the latter talked for ij hours of all the
frontier questions—admirably E.M. sat and listened for ii
hours and then summed up the whole question with complete
comprehension. I was enchanted. He is not only able E.M.,
he is the real thing—he’s a statesman ...

She travelled to Alexandria aboard the s.s. Lotus, arriving in
Damascus on November 25 th, 1913. Her first call was on
Muhammad al Bessam, the son of Doughty’s generous host in
Anaiza, who knew of good riding camels that were going
cheaply in Damascus. She found him an indispensable support
whenever she arrived in the Syrian city and she relied on him