Page 185 - Life of Gertrude Bell

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THE ARAB BUREAU 167
Thus began the so-called Arab Awakening, which men in the
mainstream of the war were to label ‘a side show’ and then, with
redoubled scepticism, ‘a side show of a side show’. Gertrude had
picked up the stirrings of revolt years before and now she,
Hogarth, Lawrence and the others set out to make them articu­
late. The word ‘Liberty’ had gone forth, as she had noted in her
preface Amnratb to Amnratb, from printing presses made available
by missionaries in Baghdad, Basra and Damascus:
The sense of change, uneasy and bewildered, hung over the
whole Ottoman Empire; it was rarely unalloyed with anxiety;
there was, it must be admitted, little to encourage unqualified
confidence in the immediate future. But one thing was certain;
the moving Finger had inscribed a fresh title upon the page.

On December 7th the Cabinet had decided to order the final
withdrawal from the Dardanelles. On January 1st she had
written to Lady Bell: ‘My dearest Mother, I wonder, if I could
choose, whether I would not have the past year again, for the
wonder it held, and bear the sorrow again. And dearest, not
least of all the wonder would be your kindness and love, yours
and Father’s, bless him a thousand times. I can’t write it off yet,
but I ask myself what I should have done without it and find no
answer. I don’t speak of these things now; it’s best to keep
silence. But you know that they are always in my mind.’ A few
days later: ‘Yes, the retreat from Gallipoli was wonderful. It
doesn’t bear thinking about. But it was no good staying ... the
folly and muddle of it all, and the vain courage.’
She was given three hours in which to pack for India and left
aboard the troopship Euripides on January 28th, 1916. She arrived
in Karachi on February 7th.