Bagdad Dec 12 Dearest Father. It's exactly 3 weeks since the last mail came in! Do my letters arrive with any regularity? I write, as you do, every week. But this week there's not much to write about for I've been rather a poor thing with a chill. I stayed at home two days and then couldn't bear it any longer so I went back to office feeling rather a body. Then thank Heaven, two days ago came rain and put an end to the bitter cold. I hope we shall have no more of it - it's impossible to keep one's office at a temperature in which one can live and work. Today, Sunday, I wasn't going out anywhere, being still not well, but the rain had put an end to expeditions. It has been a beautiful sunny day however; I went out riding in the morning, longing for a little fresh air. But it was so muddy that one could scarcely even go out of a walk. Since I came in I've been sitting in the sun in my verandah getting out some tables about tribes. It's now almost impossible to believe that it has been so cold. My garden is well sheltered with its walls and orange trees but I'm the only person whose chrysanthemums have not all been blackened by frost. An estimable little Saiyid friend of mine who is the great cabbage and cauliflower grower of the place, tells me he has lost 70,000 plants - that, at their present price is about £4000. I don't know if you remember my writing to you once of a visit I paid to his gardens in Mu'adhdham [Azamiyah, Al]. By the way, Banu Ozma has got safely into hospital - the day after my visit to her - but as she is suffering from acute arthritis and rheumatism I doubt if any doctors can do much for her. Hearing I wasn't well she sent an old Persian servant or secretary to ask after my health, the most charming old person looking in his black cap and brown robes like the model of a discreet and faithful oriental henchman. I must go and see her in hospital now I'm better. Do you know the rupee is now 15 to the £! It suits me, but its rapid fall has produced a financial crisis in Baghdad. I've no doubt you understand why it does what it does (the rupee) but its vagaries are inscrutable to me. Saiyid Talib came to se me one day with Mr Philby while I was ill. He was most pleasant and reasonable. He has also sent me boxes of dates, cheeses and a pot of honey. Today I had an immense basket of oranges from Faiq Eff. of Fahamah (above Baghdad) - oranges and dates come pouring in at this time of year. Rashid al Khojah, ex-Sharifian officer (I told you of his dining with me) has been made Mutasarrif of Baghdad Division - a very good appointment I think. He has a great name for integrity, is a convinced Nationalist but looks to the British mandate as the only hope in setting up native institutions. That's the type we want. Poor Mr Garbett flew to Kirkuk to attend a conference, crashed at Tauq [Daquq] (you remember we motored through it) and broke two ribs and an arm. He has been taken to hospital at Kirkuk but we hear he has slight symptoms of pleurisy so I fear the broken rib has touched the lung. The pilot was killed outright - terrible, isn't it. They had a forced landing and bumped into a hillock which overturned them. It was Mr Garbett's first flight. I don't think I ever told you an absurd story about A.T. [Wilson]'s flying - when he went to Arbil [(Hawler)] and Mosul [Mawsil, Al] in Sep. just before leaving. It was in the middle of the tribal reBellion and a very risky performance, for if he had had a forced landing, ten to one the tribes would have murdered him. Just before he left {Kirkuk} Arbil he got a telegram from GHQ in these words: "If the Civil Commissioner is going on to Mosul will he be so kind as to drop a bomb on Batas." Batas was in full revolt. It was the sort of kindness which AT didn't object to performing at any time. But the wording of the telegram struck me as deliciously blockheaded. I'm entertained to find myself in the eyes of the Ministry of the Interior (and indeed of the Arab Govt) as the first authority on tribes. And indeed I am, for if I don't know as much about any particular tribe as its tribesmen, I know more about 'Iraq tribes as a whole than anyone else. Pas sans peine - I've worked at them, for years. So it's really I who have settled the details of tribal representation. The idea is to have 30 tribal members in the elective assembly, 20 being representatives of the 20 biggest tribes and the other 10, one apiece for the small tribes grouped together in each of the new 10 divisions. I've supplied the data to the electoral law committee and selected the 20 tribes. I don't think the Council will quarrel with any selection but I shouldn't be surprised if there's a good deal of opposition to tribal representation. Mr Philby is very eager about it and I hope he will get the draft law through the Council. It's not only right in itself that the tribes should be represented but it's also essential for the safety of the National Govt that the tribes should be associated with it. Moreover there's a strong feeling on the subject in advanced Nationalist circles, as I know well. All the same it's a bold step. In Turkish times no tribes took part in the elections because no tribesman dreamt of registering, lest he should be taken for military service. The townsfolk and landowners who hate and fear the tribes (as the tribes hate and despise the townsmen) won't a bit like their gaining political status. It's the landless Intelligenzia who want it and they are the backbone of the Nationalist party. All the big landowners on the Council, from the Naqib downwards will try to keep the tribes out. I expect the tribes will vote through a committee of their chief shaikhs who will select one of themselves. I've had a letter from Abdul Wahid, our host at the luncheon party in the Shamiyah [Shamiyah, Ash], now in prison at Hillah [Hillah, Al], asking me not to forget him and I've sent him a friendly message. I think he'll get off lightly for we are not punishing people for leading the reBellion but only for specific proved incitement to murder Govt officers, British or Arab, or destroy Govt property. As I write comes a mail at last with delightful long letters from you and Mother dated Oct 27 and a shorter letter from you dated Nov. 3. As for what you and Mother say about my letters, I can't tell you what it is to me to be able to write to you so fully and to know that you're both interested. Of course it makes it infinitely easier to write in such detail that you, Father, should have been actually here and seen the people and conditions. I feel that you know and can fill in the gaps for Mother. I should not keep a record of all this time if it wasn't that I wanted to send it to you and very often I feel that in writing to you I'm clearing my own mind, trying to see things as a whole. It helps me enormously. But of course the real joy is to know that you want to hear. As far as I'm concerned official life hasn't been a bed of roses. I think I was very difficultly placed. That's all ended now. With Sir Percy's coming my personal difficulties are over. And the fact that with him I know we're working in the right direction gives a wonderful glow to everything. The more I am with him the more increasingly do I feel confidence in his wisdom and uprightness. That's bedrock; one can't ask more. I'm deeply interested in what you say about the coal strike settlement and I hope you will send me all your works on the subject. Also I hope Mother will send me her piece about Mary Ward which I should much like to read. How thrilling about the fox being killed in the porch! As regards Edwin - I have no sort of complaint. On A.T.'s telegram (which incidentally AT never meant to come to his hands, it was sent to Sir Percy!) he was perfectly right to telegraph to me as he did and I thought his telegrams to me full of consideration and kindness. The trouble was I didn't know what they were about, AT having denied that he had made any complaint about which he hadn't told me! It makes me laugh now to think how much taken aback AT must have been when Edwin telegraphed direct to me and AT began to realize that the whole story must come out. It was a mean trick on his part. Sir Percy could scarcely believe he hadn't told me of his telegram to him. Edwin's telegrams to Sir P. on political matters are I think excellent and all through the India Office and he have always given us here the most loyal backing and help. I don't know what Domnul's view is based on. He has mentioned it to me. Your very affectionate daughter Gertrude