Page 164 - Life of Gertrude Bell

146
GERTRUDE BELL
leading article in the newspaper conjectured as to the explorer’s
route, and remarked on Gertrude’s trek. She responded with a
letter published on the 13th of the month:
Sir, I heard recently in Damascus that Captain Shakespear’s
intention was to travel north from al-Riyadh, leaving Hail to
the west and touching the wells of Lai11a visited by Captain
Lcachman in 1912; thence to Jauf and to the head of the Gulf
of Aqaba. It is, however, useless to speculate as to his route,
as we shall shortly have a description of it from himself, and all
who are interested in the exploration of Arabia may rest
assured that one so well qualified as he will give us information
of singular value. Since you make allusion to my more modest
journey, will you permit me to describe the course I took? ...
She went on to give an account of her journey from Damascus to
Hail and the return along the pilgrim route to Najaf and Baghdad.
She ended with a brief reference to the current conflict in central
Arabia.
My belief is that Ibn Saud is now the chief figure in central
Arabia, although the Ottoman Government was still pursuing
its traditional policy of subsidising and supplying arms to the
Rashids. Captain Shakespear will be able to give us more
certain information as to the relative positions of the pro­
tagonists.
The Tims railed at Britain’s spineless and confused approach to
eastern problems at this juncture and in a leading article on June
29th it made a pertinent attack on the Asquith Government’s
attempt, shared by its Liberal predecessors, to take power away
from the Government of India and place it in the hands of a Foreign
Office preoccupied with European and domestic affairs and in­
capable of taking a genuinely ‘imperial’ view. Under the heading
‘Council of India Bill’, it observed:
One of the deplorable results of the intense preoccupation of
the country in the Ulster problem is that many often gravely
important issues, both Imperial and foreign, are receiving
insufficient attention ... The attempts to undermine the Council
began as soon as the Liberal Party entered office. From the
moment when Lord Morley became Secretary of State for
India, he set himself up to belittle and to contract the functions

*
1