Baghdad June 8 Darling Father. I must write to you because I've been reading with profit your old papers on dumping and the future of trade. The former appears to me to be unanswerable and the latter both brilliant and moderate. My compliments! But oh keep clear of Charlie and his crew. The excellent things you have to say will come with so much more force if you are in no way associated with them, damn them. I'm completely recovered - no further bulletins will be issued. But I've retained the excellent habit of sleeping for an hour after lunch, which though a terrible waste of time brings a remarkable increase of energy. I'm busy at spare moments with the W.O. articles of which I told you. I've written 4 and I think they will run to 7. Good please God! It's no light task in the midst of so many other things. I'm most grateful to you for your action with regard to former articles. I wonder if G.R. [Geoffrey Robinson] will publish the one you sent him. This new lot I really do want to see the light of day. They are as good a plea as I can make for the Arab race and I want people to listen. Frankly, who knows if I don't? People are beginning to write to me from Damascus [Dimashq (Esh Sham, Damas)], learning that I'm here, and one of the men who went with me to Hail has arrived in Basrah [Basrah, Al (Basra)] looking for me, and is to be sent up here. A useful man - he knows the tribes. Life has been égayée by the coming of a harmless old lunatic from the Syrian side of the desert. The motive of his journey was as follows; he met in the desert a woman of stupendous stature and luminous countenance. On being questioned she declared that she was the sun but this reply did not, apparently, satisfy our friend and pressing her further she admitted that she was the British Govt. Thereat he resolved to come straight to Kokus (Sir Percy Cox ) seeking the sun, as he reasonably explained. The word Kokus is rapidly passing into the Arabic language not as a name but as a title. You are a Kokus, just as once upon a time you were a Chosroes or a Pharoah, I'm currently described as a Kokusah, i.e. a female Chosroes. Isn't it delicious!
I've been dining out frequently. Sir Percy and I dined with General Cobb to whose staff Richard temporarily belongs, a charming man. My connection with him is that I knew his brother in law in Egypt. We dined on a terrace jutting out into the Tigris and dear Gen. Cobb, finding a sympathetic audience told the whole tale of the advance (he commands the 1st Corps) from Sannai'at to Samarra. It was wonderfully interesting. Next evening I dined with General Gunning, G.O.C. Baghdad garrison. His wife is a sister of Sir Clinton Dawkins but my link with him is the chlorinated water tank in my garden which his men look after - to my great convenience. The matron of one of the hospitals was of the party, a nice woman. And it's so pleasant to meet a woman. My chief female friend is the Mother Superior of the Dominican Convent, a charming French woman from Touraine. She comes in often to the office to see me on business of one sort and another and I have often, to my great pleasure, been able to help her. It's something to be a Kokusah, you see. Last night - to continue - I dined with the head of the police, Major Gregson, and again spent the evening sitting on a terrace and talking to a darling old General called Edwardes. I must send you for your diversion one of the many petitions I receive. They are generally in Arabic but on red letter occasions they come in a local translation, of which this is a fair sample. I hope you will like it. Let me announce to you the arrival of 2 charming hats - for which many thanks to Moll - some chiffon veils, brown stockings. Of the gowns 2 arrived a fortnight ago and no more since. It's to be opes [sic] they are not at the bottom of the Mediterranean. I'll send a subscription to the Syrian fund but I think my article on Syria will be the best subscription if it is published. Your aff. d. Gertrude

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