Page 208 - Life of Gertrude Bell

190 GERTRUDE BELL
and carrying himself with the air of one accustomed to com­
mand. Though he is more massively built than the typical
nomad shaikh, he has the characteristics of the well-bred Arab,
the strongly-marked aquiline profile, full-flesh nostrils, promi­
nent lips and a long narrow chin accentuated by a pointed beard.
His hands are fine, with slender fingers ... and in spite of his
great height and breadth of shoulder he conveys the impression
common enough in the desert, of an indefinable lassitude ... the
secular weariness of an ancient and self-contained people, which
has made heavy drafts on its vital forces and borrowed little
from beyond its own forbidding frontiers. His deliberate
movements, his slow sweet smile and the contemplative glance
of his heavy lidded eyes ... Nevertheless report credits him with
powers of physical endurance rare even in hard-bitten Arabia.
Among men bred in the camel saddle he is said to have few
rivals as a tireless rider. As a leader of irregular forces he is of
proved daring, and he combines with his qualities as a soldier
that grasp of statecraft which is yet more highly prized by the
tribesmen ... Politician, ruler and raider, Ibn Saud illustrates a
historic type. Such men as he are the exception in any commun­
ity, but they are thrown up persistently by the Arab race ...

Whitehall was impressed by the article, as by almost everything
else that came with the familiar initials GLB attached to it. The
Secretary of State for India told Cox: ‘We are publishing Miss
Bell’s article, omitting reference to Shakespear’s friendship and
earlier relations with Bin Saud’. It was clear the way the wind was
blowing. Britain was committed to its Sharifite policy. Austen
Chamberlain also declared that it was unwise to refer in future,
in published material, to our hitherto ‘secret’ treaty with Ibn Saud.
He referred to a virtually meaningless document signed by Cox and
Ibn Saud on December 26th, 1915 following Shakespear’s death.
Gertrude spent Christmas 1916 with Philby at Amara on the
Tigris. ‘I’m going with the kind Revenue Commissioner Mr
Philby.’ In London the reverberations of the Dardanelles and Kut-
al-Amara brought drastic changes to the Whitehall administra­
tion. Before leaving Gertrude wrote to her father: ‘What a strange
metamorphosis, isn’t it, that Lloyd George should be leading a
Cabinet which is practically a Unionist exponent of patriotism I
—who would
His apotheosis and the complete collapse of Winston
have thought either possible.’