Baghdad June 9. Belloved Father. Thank you for your letter of May 26, with the cutting from the Times - your admirable remarks. I have now got two batches of papers I'm glad to say. Yesterday Reuters told us of proposals on the part of the men for an 8 hours' day, etc, but said also that Cook and others were opposed to them. I do hope that there may be some developments shortly. As to the peerage, I've no doubt you are right. I have no personal feelings about it, except that I should have liked some signal recognition of your great public services. I return the letters from George and Blanche - what dears they are! George must be having no easy time.
I am enclosing the catalogue of the Babylonian Stone Room of the Museum and two picture postcards of the exhibits. The latter are as yet without letter press but they represent Nos 1 and 7 in the catalogue. No 7 is the thing I am proudest of - there is nothing like it in any museum in the world. I forgot to mention in the catalogue that the bricks which form the pedestal of the statue (No 1) are blue glazed bricks from the top of the zigurrat [sic] at Ur, remains of an upper chamber built or restored, by Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon. We brought away a lot of fragments and built them up into a pedestal - it is most effective. The King is going to open this room on Monday. It's the easiest of all to arrange because it consists only of a few large objects, but it looks extremely well and I hope it will impress the Ministers! It has indeed all the appearance of a Museum. Bernard Bourdillon came to see it last Sunday morning and was full of congratulations.

He, by the by, has now gone on leave and will call on Mother in London. I cannot remember whether you have seen him and his wife. I am very fond of them both and have always found him the kindest and most delightful of colleagues. His absence leaves a great deal more on my hands in the office, but up to now I have managed to continue going for an hour and a half to the Museum in the early morning, though I often have to take papers home to deal with in the evening.

Thursday was a very nice day for I had the whole morning there and came back to lunch and a good rest before Lionel came to tea. There was a state dinner party for the King's birthday and a reception of about 500 people in the garden afterwards. Ken was invested with his C.M.G. and other people with various honours. The party was very interesting. All the deputies and senators and everyone one had ever known in Baghdad were there, the Ministers and most of the Arab civil servants in ordinary European evening dress and hatless, the shaikhs (deputies and others) in full Arab costume and the religious leaders in robes and turbans. There was a wonderful diversity. As usual on these occasions I did not think that the British officials played their part with the Arabs. The Ministers and people of that kind moved about and talked to everyone. But most of the deputies and old fashioned people sat solidly in groups as is their custom. You had to go round and sit with each in turn, they were delighted to have you, but not enough of us did it. It is so easy, it seems to me, to take a little trouble on the few occasions when you meet them all in a big gathering.

Iltyd was down from Mosul [Mawsil, Al] for a few days to my great pleasure. He dined on Saturday; we had a delightful talk and a game or two of piquet afterwards. His plans are in the melting pot as the War Office has ordered him to return home at once for duty - for no particular reason except that it is the kind of thing the W.O. does. He is in charge of all the artillery of the 'Iraq Army and one of the really essential people here. Everyone has been plunged into consternation and Sir Henry has telegraphed to Mr Amery to ask for his personal intervention, with what result we do not yet know.

On Sunday S/L Harnett and I had a good morning in the Museum. After tea Ken and I went out to Karradah and caught four exquisite swallow tail butterflies, the first we had seen. We were much elated. He and Mr Clark and S/L Payne dined and played bridge.

Haji Naji is delighted with his knife and sends you a thousand messages of thanks.

Tonight the King comes to dine and play bridge, Ken and Rustum Haidar, the head of H.M.'s diwan, to meet him. The King is radiant over the Turkish treaty. Has it not been a wonderful volte face on their part. We can scarcely believe that that menace is over. Nuri Pasha brings us the text of the treaty on Saturday but of course we know it all as every point has been the subject of endless telegrams. Everyone feels that the 'Iraq is paying a small price, given that she had to pay a price which was, I suppose inevitable to save the face of the Turk. One difficulty that we hope may now be terminated is the enormous influx of Kurds into this country, a result of the Kurdish reBellion against the Turks. We have some 20,000 wild tribesmen within the frontier. It is impossible to prevent them from raiding into Turkey or indeed from raiding 'Iraq villages. We hope to come to some arrangement by which the Turks will let them go back. It is idle to suppose that the Christians will go back. Recently we have had another large consignment of them from the Tur Abdin, a district north east of Nisibin [Nusaybin (Nisibis)] which I know very well. The refugee question is a horribly difficult one. All the Assyrians have to be settled now that the frontier is definitely laid down, and these new people, 3 or 4 thousand of them, add to the burden.

I have some Syrian stories to tell you, but I'm afraid that must wait till the next letter for I unexpectedly went to sleep after lunch, having had an extremely busy morning, and my time for letter writing has been curtailed. Ever your very loving daughter Gertrude.