Baghdad Aug 15. Darling Father. Haji Naji turned up in the office the other day beaming all over with delight at his pruning tool. I don't think any present has ever given more pleasure. Everyone in the district, he says, comes in to look at the antica - so he always describes it, on the principle, I suppose, that an antica is a valuable and remarkable object which people naturally wish to come and see.
Also the photographs have come - I think they are quite excellent. I shall have the big one framed to hang in my room and the one for Fakhri framed and mounted before I give it to him.

We are having a very exhausting time, physically and politically. Physically because of the incredibly horrible weather. It's not very hot, never much over 110, but heavy and close beyond all belief. Every two or three days I get up in the morning wondering why, instead of getting up I don't lie down and die. At the end of the day one feels absolutely dead beat. Then for a day or two one is better, for no special reason, and then again moribund. It's not only me; everyone is the same. Mr Cornwallis has fever every two days; Mrs Drower has retired to hospital with an incurable cold; even Lady Cox is down with sandfly fever. I by comparison, am really remarkably robust.

Politically - well, I'll tell you my tale from the beginning.

I left off on Friday 4th, the first day of the 'Id. I flew in to see the Naqib at 6.15 on my way to the office and found the old thing alone and very affectionate and delightful. That was the only morning visit I could pay but at 4.30 I sallied forth and visited all the Naqib family. They nearly all live close together in my quarter, so I went from house to house in company with the people who were paying 'Id visits, notably old Shaikh Fahad of the 'Anizah, darling old thing. I must say I do enjoy 'Id visits. I never realize more my special place in the Islamic world, for I don't suppose there's another woman who goes the round at the 'Id. At 5.30 I went to the King and found the High Commissioner and the GOC also having tea with him. After they left, he bade me remain and we sat till night fall discussing Cabinets in general and his own Cabinet in particular. He was as delightful and enchanting as he knows how to be. When he let me go I paid a visit on Safwat Pasha's ladies; old Safwat toddled along too and explained how very anxious he was that the King should be guided by moderate opinion, accept the treaty, not bother about the mandate - in fact, do all the things he doesn't do. I regard Safwat as my special ally.

On Sunday 6th the King invited us to a picnic at Fahamah; us is the Davidsons (but she couldn't come) Mr Cornwallis, Capt Clayton and me. When we got there about 6 we found him sitting under the palm trees, with his ADCs and Safwat Pasha, Rustam Haidar and Sabih Beg (Min. of Public Works). The English contingent went away to bathe but I walked with the King through the wonderful palm gardens and out to the desert. For the sixth time I've watched the dates ripen. Six times I've seen the palms take on the likeness of huge Crown Imperials, with the yellow date clusters hanging like immense golden flowers Bellow the feathery fronds. We turned back to the river and walked along its uncovered beaches hand in hand, while the King laid bare to me all his hopes and fears. The sun set in red glory, across which the blue robed peasant women passed with their chattels on their heads - drawers of water are all Mesopotamian women. So we sat down under the sea green willows and talked - isn't it strange to share the inmost thoughts of a direct descendant of the Prophet who is also King of 'Iraq? The dinner was spread under the willow bushes. There was a full moon silvering the broad path of the river. We lay for an hour on cushions and carpets and almost forgot the toil and the heat which next day had in store.

The King took us back in his launch and as we slipped past the palm groves, he and I laid plans to write the history of the Arab revival from first to last, from his diaries and my knowledge. It would be a remarkable tale.

Father, you do realize, don't you, how the magic and the fascination of it all holds one prisoner?

Next morning had its special bomb shell. When I got to the office at 7 I went as usual to Sir Percy to give my report of happenings in the town - this is very secret - and he told me that Mr Churchill had turned down his urgent proposals that a compromise should be arrived at over the mandate question and instead had proposed that he and the King should come to England at once. My heart died within me. For it was obvious at the first sight that no good could result. HMG are certain to hold firm about the mandate; if they did not our iniquitous mandate in Palestine and the still more iniquitous mandate of the French in Syria would be undermined. Therefore the King must return, if he returned, with an order to toe the line. His position would therefore be far worse than it was before. If he obeyed it would obviously be only under pressure. He would lose the confidence of the moderates, while it would always be open to the extremists to maintain that he was acting contrary to his real convictions.

I told Sir Percy what I thought and sat tight. - Not for long. Next day Capt Clayton telephoned to ask if he might come to lunch - Nuri Sa'id wanted to have my advice before he discussed with the King that evening the merits of the question in all its bearings. He came and we talked it all over and found that we were in complete agreement - the King must not go. That afternoon I went up to his tennis uninvited. Nuri and Ja'far were there and Capt Clayton. He welcomed me with enthusiasm and at once sat down and asked me what he should do. I said if he went I feared he might never return - he could not come back with the nothing that our Govt would give him. He pressed me to stay to dinner with Ja'far and Nuri but with great reluctance I begged him to excuse me because I had been engaged for a week to dine with Asfar (the Syrian company promotor [sic] I told you about) who was giving a dinner solely in my honour. I didn't feel it was essential to stay because I already knew that Ja'far and Nuri were going to urge him not to go but to accept the treaty at any cost. So, with a final warning to Nuri, Capt Clayton and I departed.

We met again at Asfar's dinner where we found Rustam Haidar, and Amin Eff. of the King's Diwan, Rauf Chadirji, Saiyid Husain Afnan and other intimates. It was really rather a wonderful evening. Never tell me that East and West can't meet. We all understood one another and played into each other's hands as if we had come out of the same nursery - but far better than that; we brought divergent experience and different knowledge to bear upon the same end. 1922] This was one of the moribund days; nevertheless I've been extremely busy. Any quantity of shaikhs came in this morning - they are all up to join Saiyid Mahmud's party. They had their final meeting yesterday and enrolled 350 members off hand. They came in to tell me about it. I really believe they are getting to work. They have parcelled out the whole country according to administrative divisions. There's a head branch in every Divisional headquarters and sub branches in every district; the shaikhs are going back to organize them, their tails are up sky high. They declare they'll bring in the whole country. I'm flying 'Ali Sulaiman back to Ramadi [Ramadi, Ar] tomorrow. The angelic Air people are sending him in a special plane because I told them that it would add to his importance and that this suited our book. 'Ali is enchanted. There's an immense dinner party at Saiyid Mahmud's tonight - how I wish I could be there! - to celebrate the birth of the party. And the shaikhs from further afield are trooping in to register themselves as members. They are the people I love. I know every tribal chief of any importance through the whole length and breadth of 'Iraq and I think them the backbone of the country.
Meantime - thanks to grouse shooting - we are sailing very near the wind. The extremists are doing all they know to get the Middle Euphrates up. And we still wait for the answer from home which, if favourable, will enable the King to come out into the open and clinch the matter. He swears that he'll sign the treaty off hand if Mr Churchill adopts the scheme Sir Percy suggested. And we wait knowing (for we learnt the lesson in 1920) that if once the skin breaks anywhere - with the county in such a state of tension, it might break at any moment - there's no knowing how far disorder might not spread, for they would all be at one another's throats.

Two days ago a very significant thing happened - showing that the extremists are really afraid. One of them, a man we know very well, and a rogue he is, Saiyid Hadi Zuwam from Najaf [Najaf, An] way, asked for an interview with the High Commissioner. Sir Percy told me to interview him first. He said that though it was true that the extreme left wanted us to clear out bag and baggage, he and others did not hold that view; they merely asked us to give them terms which they could accept (i.e. the repudiation of the mandate) and he solemnly warned me that the big mujtahids who had hitherto kept out of the business, had given their oath that they would come in and fight us to the death if we did not give way. Now this was contrary to everything we had heard. I gave Saiyid Hadi a circumstantial report which I had had from several sources, that the big mujtahids had told the extremists that they would answer any question as to what was lawful or unlawful in matters of religion, but politics they would not touch. He replied, rather lamely, that he hadn't been there on that occasion and I concluded that he was lying with a view to frightening us. I reported this to the High Com. who saw Saiyid Hadi today and answered him on the lines of my argument. I'm sure I'm right, but one has to take one's courage in one's hands when a wrong decision may mean universal chaos.

Nasiriyah [Nasiriyah, An], too, is on the edge of reBellion. You know that the whole Muntafiq is racked by an extremely complicated agrarian problem - landlords instituted by the Turks against tribes with an ancient prescription right to the soil. The extremists have backed the landlords whereas we have always recognized that the ultimate settlement, must be in favour of the tribes. The tribes have now been driven to the verge of desperation and say openly that if the Arab Govt intends to override them they will turn it out as far as their Division is concerned, and they know they can. If it had not been for Major Yett's extreme tact and great influence over the tribes, combined with the real desire of Yasin Pasha, the Mutasarrif, to deal with the question on its merits, not on party lines, Nasiriyah would have been sacked by the tribes last week. It was touch and go. And the worst of it was that the King was wholly unconscious of the issue. He swore to me that if he had been there he would have "broken the heads of the tribes" and he was furious with Yasin for temporizing. "Am I not a tribesman?" he said, "Do I not know how to handle them? I would have set one against the other and brought them to heel." As if that would have solved deep seated agrarian grievances! {But} I left it at that for the moment but I shall have at him again. He thinks he knows and he hasn't the beginning of knowledge. You have to be an expert in land questions to know. Weeks ago he said to me indignantly "Don't you think I understand the Muntafiq?" and when I replied that frankly I didn't, he was exceedingly angry. But he doesn't. Poor darling! I'm free to admit that it isn't easy to be King of the 'Iraq!

Meantime all these internal hostilities which are so gravely preoccupying us may well be obliterated by the growing menace of the Kamalists on our northern frontiers. Today we have news which causes us serious alarm. Simko, the Kurdish brigand across our borders (of whom I told you in my last letter) has, we hear, been completely and finally routed by the Turks. Now Simko, brigand as he is, is a Kurdish nationalist and he is persuaded that without our help he can never attain his end (which is primarily to make Simko ruler of all Kurdistan). He has therefore not only kept in with us but he has recently sent delegates to all the frontier Kurdish tribes telling them that if they oppose us, at Turkish instigation, he'll have their blood. Simultaneously with the news of his annihilation, we have frantic telegrams from Sulaimani [Sulaymaniyah, As] asking for aeroplanes on the frontier and Levies and all the force we can put into the field. I feel very much alarmed and I've urged Sir Percy once more to let the King try his hand to keep Sulaimani straight since it's clear we have no more arrows in our quiver. If he does, I think there's just a chance that the Division may be saved; but if it goes, Turkish stock will soar and the immediately adjacent Division of Kirkuk, of which the inhabitants are largely Turk by race, will go with it. It's almost inconceivable that we should be so close to the edge of overwhelming disaster, but I think we are. Incidentally all our officers in Sulaimani would be murdered - one has almost got to the point of adding that that is what they are there for.

To return to 'Iraq: we have succeeded in picking up the Cabinet and restoring it to its chairs - so I understand - rather battered and dusty, but still Ministers. Since it is they who have passed the treaty, it's absolutely essential that they should remain in office till the treaty is actually signed. After that the deluge, [3 lines deleted] The extremists were jubilant over the resignations and I trust they will be correspondingly disgusted when the resignations are withdrawn.

Now I come to think of it, I can't imagine how you can bear to wade through all these reams of 'Iraq politics - can you bear it?

Two days later I dined en famille with the King, i.e. with Safwat and his little son, Ahmad. After dinner Safwat discreetly melted away and the King and I sat on the balcony over the river and talked for an hour and a half. But though it was amazingly beautiful as to moonlit river and drifting, red lighted coracles, melon laden, and though the King, as ever, opened to me his inmost heart, I came away not very happy. He is immensely sore at not being allowed to try his hand with the Kurds of Sulaimani [Sulaymaniyah, As] and there I am completely on his side. And also he is intensely anxious to try to come to an independent agreement with the Kamalists. Again I'm wholly with him and I promised to do all I could with the High Commissioner.

The point is this. They think we are about to come to an agreement with the Kamalists on the basis of handing back to them the Mosul [Mawsil, Al] wilayat which would decapitate the 'Iraq. I honestly believe that even our opportunist Govt would not be capable of such an outrage, but the only way to convince the King and his party, is to give them a free hand to negotiate on their own account with the Turks.

Next day I went to his tennis - he had a large party - and coming back with Nuri and Capt Clayton discussed the scheme for approaching the Turks which in the intervals of tennis, the King had laid before me. It's eminently reasonable as I pointed out next morning to the High Commissioner. He is not averse from it and I think between us we'll keep him up to advocating it with HMG.

Meantime the Sec. of State has sent us a perfectly damnable despatch, of which the author is patently Major Young, God curse him - recommending that before the elections we shall practically advise (that's what it comes to) all the Kurdish districts within 'Iraq to stand out and form a Kurdish independent state. The High Commissioner, with all his bristles out, told me to put up my observations on it, which I've done in no guarded manner. I think and hope that he'll fight it to the death for if we adopted the proposals it contains, it would mean that not only Faisal but every Arab 'Iraqi would be convinced that we are separating the Kurdish 'Iraq provinces from Arab 'Iraq in order to hand them back to the Turks.

I've been ceaselessly engaged in writing memorandums on the Kurdish question for the High Commissioner. Yesterday, in a perfectly infernal climate and feeling fit to die I worked from 7 to 1.30 in the office, came home and lunched and worked uninterruptedly from 2.30 to 6, after which I went to a Committee meeting and then to a dinner at the French consulate where we played Bridge till midnight. I came home feeling like a horrible spectre.

The High Com. has telegraphed home that he doesn't see any advantage in Faisal's going to England. He recommends that we should publish the treaty, say that we're all agreed upon it and that the sole point of difference is the mandate. On that point the electors of the 'Iraq must decide; if they decide against it, we will evacuate tomorrow. The King is delighted with this proposed solution and says it will be easy for him to explain that he has got the best terms he could and the people must accept them or resign themselves to anarchy. But will our Govt accept this suggestion? that's what we don't know, for being all away grouse shooting we can get no answer to any telegram, however urgent.

Incidentally at the time of writing we haven't a government. Last week the Cabinet invited the King to pass a vote of confidence in it - such is our curious political procedure. The King, having no confidence in the Cabinet - rightly or wrongly, there is a great deal to be said on both sides - returned a wholly non-committal answer, whereupon the Cabinet, with the exception of the Naqib and the Minister of Pious Bequests, resigned: I expect it will be reconstructed on the same site, but upon my soul we've got to be so accustomed to having Cabinets tumbling about our ears, that we don't pay much attention. Ont thing is I think certain - the Naqib will never relinquish his position as Prime Minister until he is carried out of it feet foremost. And since he has got to affix his signature to the treaty it's perhaps as well.

His son, Saiyid Mahmud, by dint of much pushing and goading, has come out as the leader of a moderate political party. The real driving power is Shaikh 'Ali Sulaiman of the Dulaim, whom more and more I regard as the most remarkable man in this country. He was sitting in my office this morning when I heard of the fall of the Cabinet, by telephone. I said "'Ali, since you're always in the office I shall treat you like a Govt Official - the whole Cabinet has resigned with the exception of the Naqib and the Minister of Auquf." He replied stolidly "With regard to the Minister of Auquf, he has no bread" i.e. he can't afford to relinquish his salary. That's about it.

The extremists have also formed a party but from all I hear it isn't making much headway. 'Ali has brought in all the big tribal shaikhs and made them sign on to Saiyid Mahmud's party. They filled my office to overflowing yesterday to explain that they were prepared to organize the whole country in favour of mandatory relations with Great Britain. It's the most amazing thing in the world this voluntary uprising of the provinces in our favour but there is an opposition party which can cause infinite mischief, possibly revolution, unless we can induce the King to control them. That's why it's worth my while to sit hand in hand with him so often.

But you know darling we're playing an exceedingly difficult game. We assure the King and our Nationalist friends here of our good intentions, and then paff! comes the Palestinian mandate which is worse that we could have anticipated in our wildest dreams. How can we feel certain that our lying scoundrel Govt won't play us the same trick and while signing a treaty with the King, present to the League of Nations a mandate wholly incompatible with the terms of the treaty? That's where we are so dreadfully let down. You may be sure, Father, that we have embarked on a path in Palestine which can lead to nothing but revolution and the League of Nations is forever damned for having passed the Palestinian and Syrian mandates which are contrary to its every principle. Shall we ever get the High and Mighty to understand that oriental nationalism, as represented by people like Faisal and the Mufti of Jerusalem [(El Quds esh Sherif, Yerushalayim)], is not a thing to be played with?

Aug 16. [16 August 1922] This was one of the moribund days; nevertheless I've been extremely busy. Any quantity of shaikhs came in this morning - they are all up to join Saiyid Mahmud's party. They had their final meeting yesterday and enrolled 350 members off hand. They came in to tell me about it. I really believe they are getting to work. They have parcelled out the whole country according to administrative divisions. There's a head branch in every Divisional headquarters and sub branches in every district; the shaikhs are going back to organize them, their tails are up sky high. They declare they'll bring in the whole country. I'm flying 'Ali Sulaiman back to Ramadi [Ramadi, Ar] tomorrow. The angelic Air people are sending him in a special plane because I told them that it would add to his importance and that this suited our book. 'Ali is enchanted. There's an immense dinner party at Saiyid Mahmud's tonight - how I wish I could be there! - to celebrate the birth of the party. And the shaikhs from further afield are trooping in to register themselves as members. They are the people I love. I know every tribal chief of any importance through the whole length and breadth of 'Iraq and I think them the backbone of the country.
Meantime - thanks to grouse shooting - we are sailing very near the wind. The extremists are doing all they know to get the Middle Euphrates up. And we still wait for the answer from home which, if favourable, will enable the King to come out into the open and clinch the matter. He swears that he'll sign the treaty off hand if Mr Churchill adopts the scheme Sir Percy suggested. And we wait knowing (for we learnt the lesson in 1920) that if once the skin breaks anywhere - with the county in such a state of tension, it might break at any moment - there's no knowing how far disorder might not spread, for they would all be at one another's throats.

Two days ago a very significant thing happened - showing that the extremists are really afraid. One of them, a man we know very well, and a rogue he is, Saiyid Hadi Zuwam from Najaf [Najaf, An] way, asked for an interview with the High Commissioner. Sir Percy told me to interview him first. He said that though it was true that the extreme left wanted us to clear out bag and baggage, he and others did not hold that view; they merely asked us to give them terms which they could accept (i.e. the repudiation of the mandate) and he solemnly warned me that the big mujtahids who had hitherto kept out of the business, had given their oath that they would come in and fight us to the death if we did not give way. Now this was contrary to everything we had heard. I gave Saiyid Hadi a circumstantial report which I had had from several sources, that the big mujtahids had told the extremists that they would answer any question as to what was lawful or unlawful in matters of religion, but politics they would not touch. He replied, rather lamely, that he hadn't been there on that occasion and I concluded that he was lying with a view to frightening us. I reported this to the High Com. who saw Saiyid Hadi today and answered him on the lines of my argument. I'm sure I'm right, but one has to take one's courage in one's hands when a wrong decision may mean universal chaos.

Nasiriyah [Nasiriyah, An], too, is on the edge of reBellion. You know that the whole Muntafiq is racked by an extremely complicated agrarian problem - landlords instituted by the Turks against tribes with an ancient prescription right to the soil. The extremists have backed the landlords whereas we have always recognized that the ultimate settlement, must be in favour of the tribes. The tribes have now been driven to the verge of desperation and say openly that if the Arab Govt intends to override them they will turn it out as far as their Division is concerned, and they know they can. If it had not been for Major Yett's extreme tact and great influence over the tribes, combined with the real desire of Yasin Pasha, the Mutasarrif, to deal with the question on its merits, not on party lines, Nasiriyah would have been sacked by the tribes last week. It was touch and go. And the worst of it was that the King was wholly unconscious of the issue. He swore to me that if he had been there he would have "broken the heads of the tribes" and he was furious with Yasin for temporizing. "Am I not a tribesman?" he said, "Do I not know how to handle them? I would have set one against the other and brought them to heel." As if that would have solved deep seated agrarian grievances! {But} I left it at that for the moment but I shall have at him again. He thinks he knows and he hasn't the beginning of knowledge. You have to be an expert in land questions to know. Weeks ago he said to me indignantly "Don't you think I understand the Muntafiq?" and when I replied that frankly I didn't, he was exceedingly angry. But he doesn't. Poor darling! I'm free to admit that it isn't easy to be King of the 'Iraq!

Meantime all these internal hostilities which are so gravely preoccupying us may well be obliterated by the growing menace of the Kamalists on our northern frontiers. Today we have news which causes us serious alarm. Simko, the Kurdish brigand across our borders (of whom I told you in my last letter) has, we hear, been completely and finally routed by the Turks. Now Simko, brigand as he is, is a Kurdish nationalist and he is persuaded that without our help he can never attain his end (which is primarily to make Simko ruler of all Kurdistan). He has therefore not only kept in with us but he has recently sent delegates to all the frontier Kurdish tribes telling them that if they oppose us, at Turkish instigation, he'll have their blood. Simultaneously with the news of his annihilation, we have frantic telegrams from Sulaimani [Sulaymaniyah, As] asking for aeroplanes on the frontier and Levies and all the force we can put into the field. I feel very much alarmed and I've urged Sir Percy once more to let the King try his hand to keep Sulaimani straight since it's clear we have no more arrows in our quiver. If he does, I think there's just a chance that the Division may be saved; but if it goes, Turkish stock will soar and the immediately adjacent Division of Kirkuk, of which the inhabitants are largely Turk by race, will go with it. It's almost inconceivable that we should be so close to the edge of overwhelming disaster, but I think we are. Incidentally all our officers in Sulaimani would be murdered - one has almost got to the point of adding that that is what they are there for.

To return to 'Iraq: we have succeeded in picking up the Cabinet and restoring it to its chairs - so I understand - rather battered and dusty, but still Ministers. Since it is they who have passed the treaty, it's absolutely essential that they should remain in office till the treaty is actually signed. After that the deluge, [3 lines deleted] The extremists were jubilant over the resignations and I trust they will be correspondingly disgusted when the resignations are withdrawn.

Now I come to think of it, I can't imagine how you can bear to wade through all these reams of 'Iraq politics - can you bear it?

Aug 18. [18 August 1922] This is mail day and I haven't finished my letter. No I was too optimistic about the Humpty Dumpty cabinet; they are not up agian yet nor are the King's horses and the King's men going the right way to do it. He is obviously delighted that they are out and won't realize that the departure of the Govt which accepted the treaty will be prejudicial to its acceptance by the country. I was with him a long time yesterday afternoon, first to discusss the excavations law (he is going to make me provisionally Director of Antiquities as there's no one else) but we went on to a long debate on the whole situation which I think very precarious and he wasn't at all reasonable. The truth is that we are sailing very near the wind.
Affairs on the Kurdistan frontier are also a great anxiety. The Kamalists are definitely coming down into Sulaimani [Sulaymaniyah, As], not in great force, but raising the tribes with Islamic propaganda. And we have nothing but a small levy column, exhausted by two months hard marching in the heat, and aeroplanes which aren't very effective in that mountain country. I feel terribly anxious about our isolated officers and scarcely less about one or two of the big Kurdish Aghas who are standing by us so manfully.

There's an immense cypher telegram in from home - not decyphered [sic] yet. No doubt it contains the answer which we think will decide our fate.

Oh dear! let me think of something else. I have letters from you and Mother dated July 26. I can't see any prospect of getting away this autumn unless the whole thing clears up - a possible contingency! If it doesn't we shall be in the thick of a general eleciton and the Constituent Assembly should be meeting towards the end of the year. But 'Iraq and everything else may go to the dogs before I stay here another summer. I should not be telling the truth if I didn't observe that my disappearance from the scene at the present juncture would fill the breasts of my tribal shaikhs with dismay. (I got the Air force, bless them, to fly 'Ali Sulaiman back to Ramadi [Ramadi, Ar] yesterday, to his immense satisfaction because it will put him up a peg or two in the Division where he is busy starting a branch of the moderate party.)

What a nice dinner party you had for Mr Slater. I'm glad you like him; we are very good friends.

Darling, I love you very much, though you'll have difficulty in Bellieving it owing to my permanent refusal to return to your roof.

I shall have to return to somebody's roof presently to buy a wig, that which was provided by nature having almost disappeared in the heat. Ever your very affectionate daughter Gertrude.