Baghdad Sep 17. Darling Father. Delightful letters today from you and Mother, the first - I was longing for them. Not very good news of Aunt F. [Florence[?]], and Cant seems to be still abed, but I'm very glad that the poor little doctor looks like recovering. Your visit to Cambo, in spite of discomforts, sounded very nice. There's a human atmosphere about Molly and her children which is difficult to rival. But you know I think that little Cambo house will go on in all its straitness for some time to come, whatever happens. Death duties will be so heavy that they won't be able to live at Wallington, so they say. I shouldn't like to live so much one on top of another; I like space and possibilities of solitude, but there! everyone must go his own way and they are a delightful family. The Bolton's party doesn't sound as nice as ours was. I like the Falmouths; she was, as you say, ith me at the Red X and is a very nice creature. I wonder how the visit of Eugenie and her bishop will develop - usually Eugenie's plan develop unexpectedly. Thank you so much for sending me Sir Percy's letter which I loved. He ceased to be High Commissioner two days ago - I felt it rather a momentous date, a chapter of history closed.
I hope Mother got my letter by overland mail, posted last week. It's been rather hot since I wrote, temp. up to 110 daily and the heavy mugginess which we generally get in Sep. However, it's needed to ripen the dates which are very late this year and still hanging quite unripe on the trees. I love to see them, it's the nicest part of dates, the great yellow crown of bunches, and as far as I'm concerned they may remain unripe as long as they please.

I've been very sociable. On Thursday it's true I dined alone; on Friday I dined with the King, a family party, he and I and Zaid and two courtiers who discreetly retired into the boscage - we were dining in the garden - and left us three to talk. We discussed Mosul [Mawsil, Al] politics, Zaid having just come back from there. He is a charming boy, with the most engaging manners and very sensible. He hates hanging about doing nothing and his great ambition is to spend two years at Oxford, but it's very doubtful whether that old man of the sea, his father, will let him go and they all stand in such awe of Husain that without his consent I don't know that Faisal will dare to send him. It makes my heart ache; he is bored horribly in Baghdad, hates the atmosphere of palace intrigue, rides lonely every morning, Captain Clayton tells me, plays polo and goes out shooting but thinks it all waste of time. I'm going to make another attempt with H.M. when I get him alone and I shall bend Ja'far onto the job too - he has just come back. Zaid is the best of them all; it's wicked to let him run to seed when he's trying so hard not to. I rode out to polo on Saturday afternoon and talked to him through two chuckers while he wasn't playing.

On Friday morning there turned up Père Dhorme, whom you remember we saw in Jerusalem [(El Quds esh Sherif, Yerushalayim)], and M. Thurean Daugin who lunched with us in London. So I had them to dinner on Saturday, with the Minister, Yasin Pasha, Capt Clayton and Mr Thomson to meet him. Père Anastase too - they're staying at the Latin Church. It was a pleasant dinner; we sat in my garden after with Baghdad lanterns hanging from the trees. I've been at great pains to arrange all their tour for them, where they're to stay and how to be helped to get to the places they want to see. They lunched, and so did I, with Sir Henry on Sunday - Sir Henry's French is not good, I may say - and tonight they're off to Hillah [Hillah, Al].

After tea I went out with Ken Cornwallis to the flood water between Baghdad and Aqar Quf to look for a snipe - there were several but we couldn't get near them. But do you know I found the flowering rush, not quite so tall and gracious as ours but almost exactly like it - a little more pinched and harder. I was pleased to see it.

Bernard Bourdillon, Ken and Mr Drower dined with me and we played Bridge in the garden and all enjoyed ourselves very much. Bernard is an excellent player and a very delightful partner.

Sep. 18. [18 September 1923] Ja'far is back - he arrived by last air mail and I met him at a dinner party given last night by Naji Suwaidi at the 'Iraq Club - Bernard, Ken, Mr Drower and I, with Sabih Beg, Yasin and Nuri. Ja'far had had a very bad flight - 9 hours from 'Amman against a strong wind, very bumpy and he was sick all the time as he always is. I'm glad he's back and I want presently to have a heart to heart talk with him. I rather think, and I hope, that they'll put him back into Defence. He is very loyal both to us and to the King. He has got a greater sense of perspective than most of them.
But he is entirely the King's man; he'll never question an order from him however foolish it may be, and for this reason he's unreliable in the Council. They nearly all are for that matter; only one or two (one is Sasun) will back the P.M. against H.M. though it's nearly always the P.M. who is taking the right and bold line.
In the very strictest confidence I may tell you that H.M. did his level best to have it put about that the mujtahid business was due to us and his Govt and hadn't his consent - he was away on tour at the time. Mind you he was profoundly glad and relieved when Sh. Mahdi al Khalisi was arrested but he always thinks there's credit to be got by hunting with the hounds and running with the fox. Then, as the press cutting indicated though it wasn't quite accurate, he kept closely in touch with the 'ulama of the exodus in Persia. He told Sir Henry what he was doing but he didn't tell his P.M. until one or two of the smaller fry appeared on the frontier and asked to be allowed back. The P.M. was against it but H.M. got it carried through Council. It hasn't mattered much; no one has paid any particular attention to those who have returned, indeed they're generally held to have come back with their tail between their legs, but Muhsin Beg was justifiably ruffled.

It's been very touching the welcome I've had from the big tribal people. Several of them have come in from as far as Diwaniyah [Diwaniyah, Ad] on purpose to see me and I don't think one could mistake the fact that they're glad of my return. I feel rather ashamed of the immense confidence they place in one when I consider how little any of us can do really. They trust us as they never trust their own people and they think we have behind us the concentrated force of Great Britain entirely at our disposal in any matter connected with the 'Iraq.

The King knows better, he knows how little we, as a Govt, are doing. They are now debating the clauses of the Military Agreement which forms part of the treaty. I've read the document; it consists exclusively in injunctions to the 'Iraq, harshly worded, as to what she may not do; not a syllable as to what we will do except that we shall rapidly reduce our forces as occasion serves! Now this isn't an easy thing to lay before the Constituent Assembly. The criticism that jumps to my mind will doubtless occur to the members. I know we can't change the substance, but every effort should be made to make the wording more genial and H.M.G. don't seem to realize this in the least. This is all very private. Similarly they insist on our buying up our old railways out of current revenue, a thing very hard to do. They were built for military purposes and might not unreasonably be considered part of the expenses of the war.

Sep. 21. [21 September 1923] There are a terrible number of dinner parties this week. On Monday we all dined with Naji Suwaidi at the 'Iraq Club; on Tuesday I had a dinner party for the Air Marshal and last night Sir Henry had a dinner party for me - the P.M., Sabih Beg and Ja'far were the native guests. Air Commodore Charlton is going away by today's airmail to my great regret and still more regrettable is it that Mr Thomson leaves next week. I shall miss him dreadfully. The Govt of India insists on having him back and there's more of a career for him in India than here.
Father, could you tell me anything about a firm called Norton Griffeths? They are applying for a very large concession which includes building the Habbaniyah dam at Ramadi [Ramadi, Ar] and a large canal system to the Tigris - I Bellieve the estimated cost is near 10 million or some very large figure. I don't know whether they are the sort of people who can put up capital to this amount; it's possible that they only want the concession in order to sell it. Can you tell me what sort of people they are? Ever your devoted daughter Gertrude

I wonder if Italy was nice.