Page 183 - Life of Gertrude Bell

THE ARAB BUREAU 165

Dear Lord Robert, It is very nice to be able to write to you by
bag for otherwise I could talk of nothing but the weather and
my health, both of which are too good to call for any comment.
They have set me to work here on Arabia, tribes and geography.
There is nothing else to be done at this moment; we are
marking time, not very successfully, I fear, in Mesopotamia,
and waiting for the Turkish attack on the Canal. News from
Syria is lamentably scanty and when it comes not of a very
valuable kind. It looks as if they are going to tackle the
Mesopotamian expedition before they come here, and as far
as Egypt is concerned that is most fortunate, for until the last
three weeks no preparations had been made to meet them, and
the troops in this country were mostly details or raw and quite
incoherent masses of Australians. It is almost incredible that we
should have taken such a risk — quite incredible let us hope to
the enemy. The negotiations with the Sharif have, however,
been very skilfully conducted, and as long as we can keep him
in play there is no fear of a big religious movement. He is the
only person who can raise a jehad. The Turks, preaching at the
instigation of the Germans, are as litde likely to carry con­
viction this year as they were last... Meanwhile we are
hampered both by the French and by India as you know. The
Sharif has not shown himself unreasonable. We could probably
come to terms, but never on the basis of relinquishing the
whole of Syria —and the demands put forward recendy by
Picot extended French Syria from the Mediterranean to the
Tigris. It would be wise to give the French a very long rope;
when they come to consider the administradon of such a
Syria as that it is not improbable that they would find it a bigger
business then they were prepared to undertake. But the weaving
of long ropes takes time and it is time which is lacking. A
serious Arab movement, if it were once to be set on foot,
would turn them out of N. Africa just as easily as it would turn
us out of Egypt... The weakness of the argument is that the
Arabs can’t govern themselves—no one is more convinced of
that than I—and when they come to us for help and counsel
(as they will) the French will not regard it favourably. How­
ever, perhaps we need not look so far ahead... As for the
India difficulty, the retreat in Mesopotamia may help to bring
the Indian Government into line. Mesopotamia is far less
complicated a question than Syria; it is decades behind Syria