Page 255 - Life of Gertrude Bell

faisal’s kingdom 231
Philby sat down and arranged for the High Commissioner to go
to Mosul to inform the local chiefs of his plans, to arrange for
meetings with the leading Shaikhs of the Euphrates, particularly
the Anaiza chief Fahad Beg, and wrote out a list of over a hundred
notables he should interview. They formed a dynamic secretariat.
But such tasks were a small part of Gertrude’s work at tills time.
Presented with a positive if by no means comprehensive plan of
action, she found a new lease of life. Having completed her review
of the administration, which was published as a Government
Paper and earned the applause of both Houses of Parliament, she
started again to produce a weekly intelligence summary and to
invite all the leading figures of Iraq society to her office for in­
formal talks. Her intelligence summaries resumed their old
flavour of informative commentary which kept Whitehall abreast
of events in a most unaccustomed way. The first edition to reach
the Colonial Office was number 4, dated January 14th, 1921 (the
first diree went to the India Office) and Under-Secretary Shuck-
burgh noted: ‘There is a lot of meat in this ... I should very much
like to get hold of earlier numbers ... Will this be possible?’ It
gave an account of events up to the end of the year. Under the
heading ‘Electoral Law’ Gertrude wrote that it had been amended
to provide for tribal representation. ‘The suggestion met with
considerable opposition at the bottom of which lay the rooted
objection of the propertied and conservative classes to admit the
tribesmen who are regarded as little removed from savages, to
share in the councils of State. The HC explained the reasons and
held sway.’ December 15th: ‘Council decided that Congress
should consist of 100 members, of whom 20 should be elected by
the shaikhs of tribes.’ There would also be four Jewish and five
Christian representatives. Iraq was defined. The wholly Kurdish
division of Sulaimanya and the Kurdish districts in the Mosul and
Kirkuk divisions of the old Ottoman regime were to be included
within the state. The country was to be divided into 10 Liwahs
each with a Mutassarif, 35 Qadhas with Kaimakams, and 85
Nahiyahs with Mudirs in charge of them. The new Secretary of
State for the Colonies could hardly have asked for a more detailed
account of events in the mandated territory. Of Sayid Talib,
Minister for the Interior in the first Provisional Government and
the chief contender for power under the regime which would
follow from the promised elections, she wrote: ‘Sayid Talib Pasha
has been unflagging in his efforts to win over men of all shades of