Page 215 - Life of Gertrude Bell

IRAQ 197
in a stronger position. In May Ronald Storrs arrived in Baghdad
full of bonhomie. ‘It was mighty fun,’ wrote Gertrude. ‘Mr Storrs
set the whole bazaar rocking with laughter and established my
reputation for ever as a provider of good company. Unfortunately
I am too busy to go around with him much, but such interludes
arc very reviving and the result is I’ve upped and outlined a
reasonable scheme for die government of this country— pas
(Ugoiitc! which I really think may be useful as something to bite
upon. There’s nothing like a spice of audacity; but the truth is
that the High and Mighty at home are ignorant of the most
obvious things and every now and then it’s well to reel off a string
of platitudes. I’ve found before now that what should rightly be
an immense yawn of boredom at one’s obviousness is really a
gape of semi-enlightened amazement. The delightful thing is
when they write back and give you, in the deepest confidence, the
news that after long consultation they have resolved on the
following scheme—and behold it’s what you wrote months ago.’
It does not seem to have occurred to Gertrude that as the confid­
ante of the civil head of the administration she should not be in
communication with officials in Whitehall, or the Press, except
perhaps on matters of a purely personal nature.
Storrs had arrived in the aftermath of the dispute with the
Sharif over his tide, and he was able to give Gertrude an amusing
account of the proceedings. He had visited Jidda just before the
bombshell of October 29th, 1916 when Abdullah, calling himself
‘Minister for Foreign Affairs’, had issued a statement to the world
Press and to Colonel Wilson, Wingate’s representative in Hijaz:
‘According to the wish of the people and the assembly of the
Ulema, the great master His Majesty our Lord and Lord of all,
A1 Husain ibn Ali, has been recognised as King of the Arab
Nation ’ On that occasion, when Storrs had conveyed a state­
ment from Wingate that there would be no troops or aeroplanes
for a projected attack on Rabegh, Abdullah had said with truth:
‘Forgive me, it was your letter and your messages that began this
thing with us, and you know it from the beginning and from before
the beginning.’ In December, with France and the French repre­
sentative in the Hijaz Colonel Bremond breathing fire, Storrs had
returned to Jidda. After that visit the Foreign Office noted: ‘Mr
Storrs writes amusingly, but did not get very much out of the
Sharif.’ He did, however, succeed in getting some good photo­
graphs of Husain and the excitable Sykes had issued memos in all