Page 224 - Life of Gertrude Bell

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GERTRUDE BELL
Gertrude remarked at this time —‘I do wish they would drop
the idea of an Arab Amir; it tires me to think of setting up a brand
new court.’
The Anglo-French armistice declaration of November 8th had
included the clause: ‘Indigenous population should exercise the
right of self-determination regarding the form of national g overn-
ment under which they should live.’ It was reasonable enough as
a statement of intention, and accorded with President Wilson’s
post-war doctrine of self-determination for the liberated nations.
But it posed incalculable dangers for those territories which had
been freed from the rule of the Turks and which had no interest
in, or facility for, government as the western nations knew it. As
time went on Cox and Gertrude — she following a sudden and
almost inexplicable volte face—were prepared to try to form a
national government from the rag-bag of merchants and ex-
Turkish officials of Damascus and Baghdad who now flocked
around them with ill-conceived plans and ambitions. Wilson was
not. He believed, rightly or wrongly, that to seek the sanction of
a people with no experience of government, who were divided be­
tween townsfolk who sought no greater freedom than that which
allowed them to wrangle and double-deal to their heart’s content,
and tribesmen who asked nothing more than to be left alone to
wage their feuds, was the extreme of folly. ‘Govern or get out,’was
the gist of his argument. Gertrude’s friend Frank Balfour had
been made Military Governor of Baghdad, so that she had another
ally close to hand. ‘If we get a permanent form of government
established here by this time next year I think we shall be lucky;
meanwhile we shall go on, I suppose, as we are, with the C-in-C
at the head of the administration. As long as it is Sir William it
doesn’t matter how long he occupies that post, for he is so wise
and liberal in his dealings with the administrative side ... ’ Tilings
were not so easy for Wilson, however. Tough and intellectually
formidable, he was not easily by-passed in the civil councils over
which he was supposed to preside. The military, however, had a
stranglehold over any policy he wished to pursue. Questions of law
and order were in their somewhat ineffectual hands; and he was,
in army rank, a mere Captain, though in 1919 he was given the
rank of Brevet Lt-Colonel. Gertrude in her civilian capacity was
in a much better position than he to deal with them on a footing of
personal equality, and she and they began to form a united front
against Wilson and his policy.