Page 258 - Life of Gertrude Bell

*34 GERTRUDE BELL

mightily at their tasks, he working close to Talib, she canvassing
the opinions and support of all and sundry. But there was still
considerable confusion in the minds of those who worked so hard
for a stable government. In October 1920 Gertrude had written:
‘But I also think that Sayid Talib will go under.’ In December,
‘Today ... Talib came and I must confess that he made a favour­
able impression on me. He told me frankly that he wished to be
Amir of Iraq ... I thought he showed wisdom and good sense ... ’
By the end of the year he had resigned and wanted to go to
England with his children. A few days later he was back. The
effort to find a suitable ruler resulted in the canvassing of strange
names. Two pro-Turkish notables, Hikmat Beg and Sasun Effendi,
were invited to lunch and asked what they thought of a son of the
Sultan of Turkey as ruler. They thought it a bad idea. The Aga
Khan was considered. The Naqib was a favoured choice but he
was old and weak and Gertrude’s main concern was that he should
survive until an election could be fixed. Even Ibn Saud was
thought of and as quickly dismissed.

Gertrude was far from well at this time. In October 1920 she had
written to her father: ‘I mentioned bronchids last week—well it’s
won.’ The effects of malaria, a constant chesty cold, the climate
and overwork were beginning to tell on her. She was not easily
oppressed by illness, however, and even as she lay in bed with
bronchitis her room swarmed with Arab shaikhs and political
aspirants. By the new year she seemed fully recovered.
She left for Churchill’s Cairo Conference late in February 1921,
aboard FI.M.S. Hardinge. The Colonial Secretary had gathered to­
gether anyone who might have a contribution to make to the
proceedings. With Cox’s contingent from Iraq were Sir Aylmer
Haldane the G.O.C., Sasun Effendi the Minister of Finance in
the Provisional Government, Jafar Pasha the Minister of Defence,
Major-General E. H. Atkinson adviser to the Ministry of Works,
Lt-Colonel S. Slater the financial adviser, Major-General Sir
I Edmund Ironside commander of the British army in Persia, Sir
Ed gar Bonham Carter the judicial adviser, and Gertrude. Churchill
took Sir Reginald Wingate, Hogardi, Young, Storrs, Clayton,
George Lloyd and Lawrence with him.
She wrote from Cairo on 12th March: ‘We arrived yesterday.
I got Father’s telegram at Aden saying he is coming-it really is
I splendid of him ... T. E. Lawrence and others met us at die station

I