Desert Queen (55 page)

The news reached Baghdad on May 1, 1920 and was published a few days later; as Percy Cox wrote afterwards. “It set all the tongues wagging.” Wilson issued a communiqué stating that the aim was “the creation of a healthy body politic,” with Britain serving as “a wise and far-seeing guardian.” Steps had been and would be taken, he announced, to “prepare the way for creation of an independent Arab State of Iraq.”

Every morning and late into the night secret meetings took place. And in the bazaars and the coffee houses the Arabs argued over the meaning of “mandate.” The nationalists opposed it as a superior body with the power to command; the holy men opposed it as an organized secular government threatening their very existence. To some it came as a relief; to many it betrayed the promise for self-determination given eighteen months earlier in the Anglo-French Declaration.

The twist of events had defeated Wilson’s efforts to prevent an Arab government from being formed. Now, in a desperate attempt to appeal to the moderates, he telegraphed the Foreign Office, asking permission to publish proposals for a constitution, although he did not believe a constitution should be immediately adopted. But London refused his request; his plea to be replaced at once by Percy Cox was also turned down. Neither the constitutional proposals nor the announcement of Cox’s return could be made until a peace treaty with Turkey had been signed, Whitehall said.

W
hen Britain received the mandate for Mesopotamia from the League of Nations, and France received the mandate for Syria, the French gave up their claim to Mosul, as promised in the Sykes-Picot pact. But in exchange for territory, the French demanded a share of Mosul’s future oil. With the Armenian entrepreneur Calouste Gulbenkian, known worldwide as Mr. Five Percent, as a partner, the British and French signed an agreement calling for “the permanent provision of industrial and commercial purposes of petroleum products.” The demand for oil was growing at such a heated rate that the agreement acknowledged “the supply is admitted to be increasingly inadequate.” England and France would share a common policy of development, construction of pipelines, facilitation of land acquisition for depots, refineries, loading wharves and whatever else was required.

Their rival was the United States. With almost two thirds of the world’s production of oil, the American Government feared that its own resources would soon be depleted. The United States Congress (which refused to ratify President Wilson’s League of Nations or to accept some of the Ottoman areas as American mandates, voting instead for isolation over engagement) was enraged at its allies’ ambitious quest. “England is taking possession of the oil fields of the world,” thundered Henry Cabot Lodge, the patrician senator from Massachusetts.

The debate would continue for years, but Britain’s position was clear: she desperately needed oil for her vital interests and military power. The control of Iraqi oil fields would allow the British people to sleep well at night; the security blanket of coal could now be replaced with a smooth coating of oil.

G
ertrude’s spirits had lifted since her father’s visit. “I wonder how anyone can complain about anything when they have a Father like you,” she wrote adoringly. “One takes for granted where you are concerned that no matter how unfamiliar or complex things may be that you’re seeing and hearing you’ll grasp the whole lie of them at once, and it’s only when I come to think of it that I realize what it is to have your quickness of intelligence. Anyhow, I feel certain that you know the general structure here as well as we know it ourselves and I’m enchanted that you should, not only because it makes my job so much more interesting knowing that you understand it, but also because it’s good for us all that you should be able to put in a word for us at home.”

She not only needed her father’s advocacy for Mesopotamia; she needed his moral support for herself. A. T. Wilson was making her life miserable. After another clash at their offices in the Residency, he denounced her to her face. “You are the most objectionable and intolerant person I’ve ever met,” he snarled. A few days later she lamented that office lunches were becoming unbearable: “A.T. presides, and is often cross as a bear so that the only thing is to leave him alone and not talk to him. He doesn’t like that either, but what can one do?”

The Political Officers, loyal to their chief, had lined up solidly against her, and Wilson had cut her off from the daily routine. To make matters worse, Frank Balfour, one of her few reliable friends, had become engaged to be married. “I’m very glad about it. I like her,” Gertrude remarked, adding snidely, “and should like her better doubtless if I could catch a glimpse of her face through the paint.” Then there was the stream of letters to Hugh from Florence: “Letters continue to arrive from Mother which I duly return. I hope she will soon begin writing to me instead of to you.” But determined to do what she believed in, she held her head high and carried on with her work.

Gertrude Bell flanked by Winston Churchill
(left)
and T. E. Lawrence
(right)
at the Pyramids during the Cairo Conference in 1921. Churchill slid like jelly off the camel before the photo was taken.
(University of Newcastle)

Gertrude Bell and T. E. Lawrence in Cairo, 1921. “You little imp!” she chastised Lawrence at the Cairo Conference.
(University of Newcastle)

The Cairo Conference, 1921. Gertrude Bell was the only woman among the forty delegates called by Winston Churchill to the conference.
Front row center
: Winston Churchill
(with legs crossed); to his left
, Sir Percy Cox.
Second row: second from left
, Gertrude Bell in her flowered hat and furs;
second from right
, Arnold Wilson;
fourth from right
, T. E. Lawrence.
On the floor
: baby Somali lions brought for the Cairo zoo.
(University of Newcastle)

Sharif Hussein, descendant of the prophet Muhammad, guardian of Mecca, father of King Faisal of Iraq.

Faisal
(right)
, deposed by the French from his throne in Damascus, walking in Cairo with his chief aide, Nuri Said, 1921.