Page 192 - Life of Gertrude Bell

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x74 GERTRUDE HELL
In April she wrote to her stepmother: ‘I’m thankful to hear
that Maurice won’t be fit to go on active service for another month
... I notice now that there is an attempt on the part of the Govern-
ment to shuffle the blame for the reverses here entirely on the
shoulder of the Generals in Mesopotamia, whereas everyone
knows that they were ordered to advance from home beyond all
gainsaying. If only we can make a success of Kut... We arc still
in the middle of our battle which has been interrupted by rain and
wind and floods. It’s more an aquatic achievement than a military
one out here, and rain immobilises everyone. You can’t move for
mud. How Kut holds out still I can barely guess.’
On April nth, Sir Arthur Hirtzcl, director of the Political and
Secret Department of the India Office, minuted a message to the
Viceroy:
I do not like the idea of another Bureau in Mesopotamia, but
it is perhaps best to leave GOC to make his own arrangements,
on the clear understanding that he is to work in subordinate co­
ordination with, and not on equal terms with, the Bureau in
Cairo.

On April 26th die Viceroy cabled back:
Please explain precise purport of your words ... I confess I do
not understand exact status of Mesopotamian branch of Bureau.
Cox is I understand working in perfect harmony with Hogarth.
Major Blaker has been appointed special liaison officer by
GOC Force ‘D’, but there are apparently other officers e.g.
Lawrence, who have been sent to Mesopotamia with special
instructions of which we are unaware. I should be glad to have
information of names of all such officers sent and the nature of
their instructions ... To obviate confusion, suggest that Blaker
and all other officers with special political instructions should
be considered under Cox ...
The stranded soldiers at Kut had been under siege now for five
months. The German General Von der Goltz had just taken
charge of the enemy force and he squeezed the British troops with
? native thoroughness. Since December, when General Townshend
at the head of the retreating army watched his men file past him,
hunger had gradually added its grim effect to the exhaustion from
which the men suffered on arrival. ‘As I watched the exhausted
troops dragging themselves by me —for it could hardly be called