Page 214 - Life of Gertrude Bell

196 GERTRUDE BELL

The Viceroy was delighted to pass on this glowing tribute to
Gertrude’s work, but he was no more persuaded of the good of
the Bureau’s work under Wingate than his predecessor had been
when McMahon was the unsuspecting instrument of Kitchener’s
and the Foreign Office’s policies. One notion of which the Vice­
roy was uncomfortably aware was the desire of the Bureau to
obtain the release from confinement in India of the prominent
Basra citizen Sayid Talib, whom Cox had sent away at the begin­
ning of the war. The Foreign Office had been warned before the
outbreak of war that this man was a ‘rogue’ and ‘murderer’ who
was in the pay of the Turks though he was prepared to sell his
services to either side. In March 1916, while he was in Basra,
Lawrence received an unsigned letter from a member of the
Bureau which read: ‘The Colonel has asked me to put you an fait
with the situation as it stands ... The only difficulty that has been
encountered so far is the refusal of the Indian Government to
send Talib to Basra. However, we wrote a pretty strong telegram
yesterday practically that Talib’s co-operation was essential and
added that at least he might be allowed to come to Cairo ... When
Talib is in Cairo we shall work him into a good humour and then
write the WO saying that we have seen him and we think he is
quite safe and hope in this way to get him off as No. 3 party ... \
General MacMunn is going out as I.G.C. to Basra. We have had a
talk with him and he has promised you all the support possible.
He knows all about you ... The most important thing of all (at all
events when we are getting into touch and buying people and so
on) will be cash. Finally, the WO have asked us for the names of,
and given permission for the going to Basra of any Turkish,
Arab and Kurd officers at present in India who wish to co-operate
with us ... ’ It was not the kind of letter to instil confidence in
the Indian Government or in Cox. It seems that the scheme at
that time was to appoint Talib in the place of Farouki, the go-
between in the Sharif negotiations, and send him with Nuri Said
an ex-Turkish officer then working with the Bureau, and with
Storrs’s friend and Enver Pasha’s rival for the leadership of the
Young Turks, Aziz al Masri, to complete the negotiations with
the Sharif. In an outgoing letter at the same time, Lawrence had
written to Mark Sykes: ‘Indian interests are secondary.... He
[Cox] thinks that Lord Hardinge is very sound ... Cox is entirely
ignorant of Arab societies and of Turkish politics ... ’
Now, after the taking of Baghdad, the Indian Government was