Page 194 - Life of Gertrude Bell

176 GERTRUDE BELL
fore no stone should be cast at them’. There was a last-minute
attempt to run the blockade of the river but it failed. By April
23 rd they were ready to concede defeat.
It was at this point that Captain T. E. Lawrence and Aubrey
Herbert appeared on the scene. Accustomed to carry bags of gold
along the road from Cairo to the Hijaz in order to further the
Arab rebellion, they came to Kut, on whose authority was never
clear, to bribe the Turkish Commander and Von der Goltz into
letting the prisoners go. Cox was horrified when he heard of the
ill scheme and refused to be connected with it in any way. The fact
that he did not turf Lawrence and Herbert out of the country
when he heard about their plan can only argue that they had the
backing of Whitehall.
The sum offered was £1 million. The enemy commanders
replied that they were ‘gentlemen* and could not be bribed. They
were then offered £2 million, the balance to be paid at a later date.
The answer was the same. On April 25 th Townshend asked the
permission of the Government to seek surrender terms. Admiral
Wemyss as the senior officer present was consulted by radio and
replied: ‘With your prestige you are likely to get the best terms.*
Khalil Pasha met Townshend aboard a Turkish patrol boat and
demanded unconditional surrender. The British General asked for
parole of his force. On the instructions of Enver Pasha this was
refused. At the last Townshend was offered his own liberty if he
did not destroy his arms and equipment, but he refused. On April
29th, before the radio was destroyed, a message was received
from the naval force that had tried to relieve them: ‘We, the
officers and men of the Royal Navy, who have been associated
with the Tigris Corps and have, many of us, so often worked with
you and your gallant troops, desire to express our heartfelt regret
at our inability to join hands with you and your comrades in Kut.*
Townshend and his men spent the rest of die war in Turkey,
where they were honourably confined.
On May 28th the new Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, told London:
‘You are I think aware that Captain Lawrence was recently
deputed here temporarily from Egypt in connection with certain
projects of which the Arab Bureau was one ... In view of modified
aspect in which this institution is presented to us by Lawrence, I
propose that Miss Gertrude Bell and not Major Blaker should act
as corresponding officer for Mesopotamia. To this end I contem­
plate ... giving her definite official status by Force Routine Order