Page 206 - Life of Gertrude Bell

i88 GERTRUDE BELL

Percy has been holding a fine durbar of Arab chiefs at Kuwait
and Ibn Saud is to pay us a visit here ... The whole business is a
tall feather in Sir Percy’s cap.’
Britain was becoming increasingly concerned about Ibn Saud.
Brigadier-General Macdonogh, the Director of Military Intelli­
gence, had observed in connection with the Sykes-Picot agree­
ment and the other activities of the Bureau: ‘I must confess that
it seems to me that we are in the position of the hunters who
divided up the skin of the bear before they had killed it.’ Ibn Saud
took much the same view of what was going on. He told Cox that
he was not concerned who held the Caliphate when he was asked
somewhat nervously if he approved of Husain taking on the
distinction. But he was concerned at the Sharif’s self-made title
‘King of the Arabs’ and at the increasingly bombastic attitude of
the man he regarded as no more than an upstart appointee of the
Turks who enjoyed practically no tribal support. There was also
a suspicion that Ibn Saud was merely biding his time with Ibn
Rashid and that he would strike when circumstances were
favourable to him rather than to Britain. Thus, having spurned
him for five years past and rejected his plea for an alliance,
Britain was now entertaining him royally. The Prince of Najd
arrived in Basra at the end of the month and on December ist
Gertrude wrote: ‘We had an extraordinarily interesting day with
Ibn Saud who is one of the most striking personalities I have
encountered. Pie is splendid to look at, well over 6 ft. 3, with an
immense amount of dignity and self-possession. We took him in
trains and motors, showed him aeroplanes, high explosives, anti­
aircraft guns, hospitals, base depots — everything. He was full of
wonder but never agape. He asked innumerable questions and
made intelligent comments. He’s a big man ... ’ If Gertrude was
impressed, the guest was flabbergasted. He could hardly believe
the evidence of his senses when he arrived in Basra to find that
he was being greeted by a woman. Ibn Saud, even by 1916, had
met few women outside the harem. They had no place in public
life as far as he was concerned, and of course none in his kingdom
would have been permitted to show herself in public without the
burqa or face mask. Yet here he was being greeted and shown
around by a woman whose manner was totally uninhibited and
who insisted on talking to him as an equal. Philby was to write
some years later: ‘... he certainly did not like her, while the fact
that she was accorded precedence, not only over himself but also