1
00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:00,920
You've probably heard of Colonel
Lawrence and his wonderful exploits,

2
00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:03,640
and indeed they were wonderful,
and are wonderful,

3
00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,960
but I attribute much of the success
of his enterprises

4
00:01:07,960 --> 00:01:12,680
to intelligence in which Ms Bell
had a very large hand.

5
00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:17,280
The only woman whom
the commander-in-chief

6
00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:20,240
General Sir Stanley Maude
had allowed to come up to Baghdad.

7
00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:23,840
A wonderful person.

8
00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,080
Not very like a woman, you know?

9
00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:35,160
Her work has in no sense
been exaggerated.

10
00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:38,600
It was true, however, that,
at times, she came under suspicion.

11
00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:43,320
I had known her first
in Constantinople,

12
00:01:43,320 --> 00:01:46,040
where she'd arrived straight out
of the desert

13
00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:48,800
with all the evening dresses,
the cutlery and napery

14
00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,840
she insisted on taking with her
on her wanderings.

15
00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:02,720
I have never wavered in my belief
that she came to her end

16
00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:04,280
by her own deliberate act.

17
00:02:27,640 --> 00:02:30,560
Baghdad, November the 28th, 1918.

18
00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:35,200
Dearest Father, I'm having by far

19
00:02:35,200 --> 00:02:38,560
the most interesting time
of my life.

20
00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:41,560
It doesn't happen often that people
are told that their future

21
00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:45,160
as a state is in their hands,
and asked what they would like.

22
00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:52,360
I have come to love the land,
its sights and its sounds.

23
00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:56,080
I never weary of the East,
just as I never feel it to be alien.

24
00:02:57,400 --> 00:03:02,200
It's a second native country, and
if my family were not in England,

25
00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:04,080
I should have no wish to return.

26
00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:07,960
Father, I came to the conclusion,

27
00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:11,440
I've been very unhappy
in the big things, always,

28
00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:13,920
and very happy in the little things.

29
00:03:13,920 --> 00:03:17,320
Small change for happiness,
I suppose it is.

30
00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:21,200
Except only in that very big thing,

31
00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:24,440
complete love and confidence
in my own family.

32
00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:27,440
I've had that always,
and can't lose it.

33
00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:29,360
And you are the pivot of it.

34
00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:32,880
Goodbye, dearest.

35
00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,360
Your affectionate daughter,
Gertrude.

36
00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:13,000
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell
was born on July 14th, 1868,

37
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,400
at the residence of her grandfather,
Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell,

38
00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:19,720
a prominent iron master
and owner of coal mines.

39
00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:23,320
Mary Shield, Gertrude's mother,

40
00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:26,880
died when Gertrude's brother Maurice
was born.

41
00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:28,800
Gertrude was three years old.

42
00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:39,720
Gertrude's relation to her father...

43
00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:42,920
They had deep mutual affection.

44
00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:47,840
..were to both the very foundation
of existence.

45
00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:57,920
Gertrude was eight when her father
and I were married.

46
00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:09,000
I have found a diary of hers
she kept when she was 11,

47
00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:14,480
given her as a Christmas present in
1878, but only kept for a few pages.

48
00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:17,000
She never entirely mastered
the art of spelling,

49
00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:20,200
and all her life long there were
certain words

50
00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:22,560
that were always spelled wrong.

51
00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:31,000
In the train,

52
00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:32,920
September, 1885.

53
00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:37,360
Dearest Mother mine,

54
00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:41,720
I meant to ask you whether I should
go on learning to play scales.

55
00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:46,400
I'm afraid I know what you like,

56
00:05:46,400 --> 00:05:50,080
but always have a glimmering of hope
that you may change your mind.

57
00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:55,960
Oh, my dearest, sweetest mother,

58
00:05:55,960 --> 00:06:00,400
I always want to do
what pleases you best,

59
00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:02,720
only I don't succeed very often.

60
00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:07,080
I hate going away.

61
00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:09,640
I hate the idea of reaching college,

62
00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:12,280
of going to bed
in that horrid little room,

63
00:06:12,280 --> 00:06:14,200
of waking up in the cold morning

64
00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:17,760
to find myself no longer
in my own comfortable bed.

65
00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:23,280
However, the worst is over now.

66
00:06:23,280 --> 00:06:25,560
We've almost arrived.

67
00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:30,160
Your very loving and rather
sorrowful daughter, Gertrude.

68
00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:49,320
Oxford, May, 1886.

69
00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:53,000
I love this place.

70
00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:55,840
It's much nicer
than I thought it would be,

71
00:06:55,840 --> 00:06:59,720
and I have not felt half so strange
and lonely as I expected.

72
00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:05,680
We went the other day to a lecture
of Professor Bright's.

73
00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:08,720
Bright met us with a very cross face

74
00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:12,240
and put us in seats
with our backs turned to him.

75
00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:20,560
She had several verbal encounters
with her professors.

76
00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:24,600
With one, she disputed the position
of a German town.

77
00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:28,840
The questioner held that it was
on the left bank of the Rhine.

78
00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:33,480
Gertrude exclaimed, "I'm so sorry,
but it really is on the right!

79
00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:35,040
"I've been there."

80
00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:43,720
Women's colleges of this university
should be levelled to the ground.

81
00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:53,040
Dearest Mother, I must tell you
an amusing story.

82
00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:56,840
Minnie Hope was sitting
with an Oxford man and, presently,

83
00:07:56,840 --> 00:07:59,120
he grasped her hand and said,

84
00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:03,320
"Do you see that young lady
in a blue jacket?"

85
00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:05,960
"Yes," said Minnie, lying low.

86
00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:09,200
"Well," said he,
in an awestruck voice,

87
00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:11,880
"She took a first in history."

88
00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:57,240
Sunday, 95 Sloan St.

89
00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:01,840
Papa is going to a smoking party at
Mr Byrne's tonight after dinner.

90
00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:06,280
Mr Byrne is delightful,
and I thought I might go,

91
00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:08,640
but I'm afraid it is only men.

92
00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:13,640
Around this time,
Gertrude took up smoking.

93
00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:17,440
Once, she took the underground to
visit her girlfriend, Mary Tolbert.

94
00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:19,920
Our mother was horrified.

95
00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:24,400
Gertrude had gone
on such an orgy of independence.

96
00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:34,560
My sister,
wife of Sir Frank Lascelles,

97
00:09:34,560 --> 00:09:36,920
who was British ambassador
to Persia,

98
00:09:36,920 --> 00:09:40,440
begged me to send Gertrude
to stay with them after Oxford.

99
00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:44,880
She felt that foreign diplomatic
society might help Gertrude

100
00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:47,400
to get rid of her Oxfordy manner.

101
00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:06,600
Tehran, May 9th, 1892.

102
00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:13,480
We arrived on Saturday afternoon
in the Garden of Eden.

103
00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:23,280
Here, in the dust and the sunshine,
is an epiphany of the living East.

104
00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:37,000
I had my first Persian lesson
with a sheik, who is a darling.

105
00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:44,240
Now, the other person
in our paradise is Mr Cadogan.

106
00:10:44,240 --> 00:10:48,480
Intelligent, a great tennis player,
a great billiard player,

107
00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:53,360
devoted to writing, though he can't
write in the least, I'm told.

108
00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:56,160
Smart, clean, well-dressed.

109
00:10:57,280 --> 00:10:58,840
I like him.

110
00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:02,880
It certainly is unexpected
and undeserved

111
00:11:02,880 --> 00:11:07,640
to have come all the way to Tehran
and find someone so delightful.

112
00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:12,840
He is always there when we want him,
and never when we don't.

113
00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:19,840
Henry Cadogan
was very unconventional,

114
00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:23,120
and therefore not very popular
among his colleagues.

115
00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:26,840
I think, apart from Sir Frank
and Lady Lascelles,

116
00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:30,640
my wife and I were the only ones
who really liked him.

117
00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:34,720
Cadogan was very musical
and spent evenings with us

118
00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:39,680
listening to my wife playing
the works of Bach, Chopin, Wagner.

119
00:11:39,680 --> 00:11:43,560
At other times, she would
bring a book and read to us.

120
00:11:43,560 --> 00:11:49,320
I remember a picnic in one of the
gardens when Gertrude and Cadogan

121
00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:53,680
had climbed up onto a gate in order
to read an ode of Hafiz.

122
00:11:55,560 --> 00:11:59,280
Then said my heart,
here will I take my rest.

123
00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:03,240
This city breathes her love
in every part.

124
00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:07,200
But to a distant
bourne was she addressed, alas!

125
00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:10,640
He knew it not, alas, poor heart!

126
00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:15,480
Not only did she lift my bosom's
veil, reveal its inmost secret...

127
00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:20,040
Dear Father, I am in a panic
that you may never have received

128
00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:24,520
the letter I wrote telling you
that I am engaged to Mr Cadogen.

129
00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:27,280
The flower-strewn river lip
and meadows fair...

130
00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:30,520
If you have not, this will come
as rather a shock.

131
00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:32,880
The rose herself
but fleeting treasures were,

132
00:12:32,880 --> 00:12:36,200
regret and winter
follow in their trail.

133
00:12:41,680 --> 00:12:44,040
July, 1892.

134
00:12:45,560 --> 00:12:51,600
Dear Domnul, I fear my affairs
look very bad.

135
00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:53,880
Mr Cadogen is very poor,

136
00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:57,640
and his father I believe
to be practically a bankrupt.

137
00:12:57,640 --> 00:12:59,720
And my father, though he is an angel

138
00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:02,240
and would do anything
in the world for me,

139
00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:05,480
is absolutely unable
to run another household,

140
00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:08,200
which is what we are
asking him to do.

141
00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:16,120
Nothing has yet been discussed, as
my father is waiting for my return.

142
00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:20,520
Meanwhile, Henry Cadogan and I

143
00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:24,360
are not allowed to consider
ourselves engaged to one another,

144
00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:28,040
and I'm afraid that the chances
of our eventual marriage

145
00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:32,560
are very far away,
somewhere in the future.

146
00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:39,560
My father recorded in a diary
how he'd travelled south

147
00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:44,080
from Yorkshire by the night train
to talk to Gertrude about herself.

148
00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:46,840
But, apart from love and sympathy,

149
00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:49,000
he could not give her
what she wanted.

150
00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:54,520
She never saw Henry Cadogan again.

151
00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:59,960
Nine months later, he died in Persia
after a brief illness.

152
00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:37,600
Now, I saw Gertrude in London
on her way to the Matterhorn.

153
00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:43,880
She was bent on doing all the most
impossible peaks in Switzerland.

154
00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:48,640
I could sympathise with her, because
I used to love climbing myself.

155
00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:53,240
But I did think she attached
too much value to the thing being,

156
00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:56,760
above all, difficult and dangerous.

157
00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:03,760
She made some remarkable
first ascents,

158
00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:07,120
requiring a great deal of skill
and endurance,

159
00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:10,880
but her destiny had been fixed
by that first visit to Persia.

160
00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,080
She was determined
to return to the East.

161
00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:38,160
I prefer the East to the West,
and, one way or another,

162
00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:41,920
I don't expect to be in England
in the future, inshallah.

163
00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:58,040
You will find in the East a wider
tolerance born of greater diversity.

164
00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:02,720
A man may go in public veiled up to
the eyes, all clad, if he pleases,

165
00:16:02,720 --> 00:16:05,640
only in a girdle.
He will excite no remark.

166
00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:11,000
Why should he? He is merely
obeying his own law.

167
00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:17,080
So, too, the European will be wiser
if he doesn't ape their habits.

168
00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:20,320
He will meet with
far greater respect

169
00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:22,440
if he adheres strictly to his own.

170
00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:32,560
I'm so wildly interested in Arabic
that I think of nothing else.

171
00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:37,400
What I should particularly like
is to get away for a long stretch

172
00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:39,480
with no-one
but Arabic-speaking people.

173
00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:43,480
That ought to make me
comparatively fluent.

174
00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:44,720
And the fun of it!

175
00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:50,920
I should like to go on to Damascus,

176
00:16:50,920 --> 00:16:53,840
and then to Palmyra
with its magnificent ruins.

177
00:16:55,240 --> 00:16:58,720
I have seldom felt the ancient world
come so close.

178
00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:07,160
Dearest, kindest and wisest
of fathers, if you don't mind,

179
00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:10,400
I'd rather do this
than be in London.

180
00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:12,760
It's more worthwhile on the whole.

181
00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:15,680
CHATTERING

182
00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,360
By the way, my photographs
are not at all bad.

183
00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:34,160
I spend all my spare moments
developing and printing.

184
00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:46,760
Did I tell you I was writing
a travel book?

185
00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:53,120
It's Syria from underneath -
the talk I hear around my campfires,

186
00:17:53,120 --> 00:17:57,000
the tales they tell me
as they ride with me,

187
00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:59,080
the gossip of the bazaar.

188
00:18:12,360 --> 00:18:16,800
It's a very odd sensation to be
out in the wilds quite by oneself.

189
00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:18,800
I don't think I ever feel lonely...

190
00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:23,440
..though the one person I often
wish for is Father.

191
00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:26,640
I think he really would enjoy it,

192
00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:29,000
and I keep wanting to compare notes
with him.

193
00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:34,040
You, Mother, I want to talk to,

194
00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:35,760
but not in a tent with earwigs

195
00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:38,920
and black beetles around
and muddy water to drink.

196
00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:50,080
I rode off in the early morning
to Carchemish.

197
00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:53,840
I found Mr Thompson and a young man
called Lawrence, an interesting boy.

198
00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:55,720
He's going to make a traveller.

199
00:18:58,120 --> 00:19:00,760
Ms Bell appeared on a Sunday.

200
00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:03,400
She was pleasant,
about 36 at the time.

201
00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:06,080
Not beautiful,
except with a veil on, perhaps.

202
00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:11,240
She told Thompson his ideas
of digging were prehistoric.

203
00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:14,680
And so, we had to squash her
with a display of erudition.

204
00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:19,520
She was taken in five minutes
through Byzantine, Crusader,

205
00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:21,800
Roman and French architecture,

206
00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:24,280
prehistoric pottery
and telephoto lenses,

207
00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:26,960
the Young Turk movement,
price of riding camels,

208
00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:30,680
Syrian burial customs,
and German methods of excavation.

209
00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:35,600
This was a kind of hors d'oeuvres
and, when it was over,

210
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:38,320
she was getting more respectful.

211
00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:41,480
We settled down each
to seven or eight subjects

212
00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:43,560
and questioned her upon them.

213
00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:46,760
She was quite glad to have tea
after an hour and a half.

214
00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:51,280
It would've been most annoying

215
00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:53,840
if she'd denounced our methods
in print.

216
00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:03,080
An Englishwoman named Miss Bell
travels through Central Asia.

217
00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:08,160
She wrote a book about Syria,
and it is clear from her letters

218
00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:12,960
and the book that she has thoughts
against the Ottoman Empire.

219
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:21,040
I find the Ottoman government here
has been in an agony of nervousness.

220
00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:24,520
They had three telegrams a day
about me,

221
00:20:24,520 --> 00:20:27,200
and wondered what
I was going to do next.

222
00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:31,400
I have become a person in Syria.

223
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,920
The sense of change,
uneasy and bewildered,

224
00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:52,840
hangs over the whole of
the Ottoman Empire.

225
00:20:56,080 --> 00:20:58,640
I should not be surprised
if we were to see in the course of

226
00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:01,640
the next ten years the break-up
of the Empire in Asia.

227
00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:24,120
Dear Domnul, you know, there's
an English vice-consul here now.

228
00:21:24,120 --> 00:21:27,240
Captain Doughty-Wylie,
a charming young soldier,

229
00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:29,520
with quite a pleasant little wife.

230
00:21:29,520 --> 00:21:32,000
He's the more interesting
of the two.

231
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:33,920
A good type of Englishmen,

232
00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:35,840
wide awake and on the spot,

233
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:37,440
keen to see and learn.

234
00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:41,400
Will you tell William Tyrell
of the Foreign Office

235
00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:43,720
I congratulate him
on the appointment?

236
00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:03,800
It isn't so much to be in London

237
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:06,800
that I want when I'm away
as to be at home at Rounton,

238
00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:08,760
where I think life
in the family circle

239
00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:10,880
is more delightful
than anything else.

240
00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:28,880
Captain Doughty-Wylie
suggests himself

241
00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:30,760
for two nights on Wednesday next.

242
00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:36,240
I can't say anything but, "Do come,"

243
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:38,320
for they were so exceedingly kind
to me.

244
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:42,880
He is very nice.

245
00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:50,000
My dear, I've always,
ever since those Turkey days,

246
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:51,640
wanted to be a friend of yours.

247
00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:57,080
Of course, call me Dick in letters,
and I shall call you Gertrude.

248
00:22:57,080 --> 00:22:59,280
There is nothing of that.
Many people do.

249
00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:03,680
My wife doesn't see my letters,
as a rule.

250
00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:12,960
The first hour of the day
is for you, Dick.

251
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:18,040
A memory comes to me, of Konya,
when I arrived the first time.

252
00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:22,560
Did you know anything of me then?

253
00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:26,600
Had you read any book of mine?

254
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:29,960
Or were you just pining
for someone to talk to?

255
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:35,760
It's late.

256
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:40,080
And I'm all alone, and thinking
of the evening at Rounton.

257
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:45,560
I have often loved women, as
a man like me does, well and badly,

258
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:50,520
little and much, as the blood took
me or simply for the adventure.

259
00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:53,040
I've always maintained
that this curious,

260
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:57,800
powerful sex attraction is a thing
right and natural to be gratified.

261
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:01,280
But if it is not gratified,
are we any worse?

262
00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:04,160
I don't know.

263
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:21,120
Domnul, if you knew the way
I have paced backwards and forwards

264
00:24:21,120 --> 00:24:22,840
along the floor of hell,

265
00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:26,080
you would think me in the right
to try for any way out.

266
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:30,000
I told you before,
it's mostly my fault.

267
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:32,600
I want to cut all links
with the world -

268
00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:34,760
that's the best and wisest thing
to do.

269
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:37,960
Don't think I'm going off on a wild
and desperate adventure in the hope

270
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:40,120
that it may indeed be desperate.

271
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:59,360
A woman named Miss Bell,
subject of England,

272
00:24:59,360 --> 00:25:02,240
plans to meet in Ibn Rashid
at Shammar territories.

273
00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:06,960
She plans to depart from Damascus
with 20 camels,

274
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:08,960
personal guards and guides.

275
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,000
We believe she's a British spy.

276
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:14,280
Her travels should be prevented.

277
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:24,200
Damascus, November 29th, 1913.

278
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:28,880
Dearest Father, I sent you today
a telegram which I fear will rather

279
00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:32,320
surprise you, asking you to make
the National Bank telegraph

280
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,760
£400 to my credit
to the Ottoman Bank here.

281
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:38,680
This is not a gift -
I wish to borrow the money.

282
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:45,480
We shall need 17 camels, good desert
camels, going cheap in Damascus.

283
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:49,280
They cost an average of £13 apiece,
including their gear.

284
00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:59,040
I never tell anyone of alleged plans
in getting in to Hayyil.

285
00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:02,480
Because otherwise the whole of
Damascus would be talking of them.

286
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:10,640
Dearest, beloved Father, don't think
me very mad or very unreasonable,

287
00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:13,320
and remember always that
I love you more than words can say,

288
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:15,320
you and Mother.

289
00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:18,840
Ever, your tiresome daughter,
Gertrude.

290
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:38,040
Miss Bell had long nursed a desire
to penetrate Arabia proper

291
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:42,160
and see Nejd, where only
one other European woman had been.

292
00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:46,520
By December 1913,
she was ready with a caravan,

293
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:50,320
and in the middle of the month,
she vanished in the desert.

294
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,720
She carried her three-inch
transit theodolite

295
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,080
from the Royal Geographical Society,

296
00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:00,960
put on the map a line of wells
previously unknown,

297
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:03,680
and accumulated information
about tribal elements

298
00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:06,320
which would become of
national value.

299
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:15,120
Despite bitter weather and
freezing night-time temperatures,

300
00:27:15,120 --> 00:27:18,200
and also trouble with an Arab tribe
of the Jebel,

301
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:21,320
she accomplished the first stage
in only 21 days.

302
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:45,400
Dearest Dick...

303
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:48,920
..I have cut the thread.

304
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:52,240
I can hear no more from you
or from anyone.

305
00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:56,360
Do you know that I am an outlaw?

306
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:01,960
Ambassador Louis Mallet has informed
me that if I go on towards Nejd,

307
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,360
my own government
washes its hands of me,

308
00:28:04,360 --> 00:28:07,360
and I have given a categorical
acquittal to the Ottoman government

309
00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:09,320
saying that I go on at my own risk.

310
00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:13,600
For in no case could the Turks
be held responsible for me,

311
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:15,520
since I travel without a guard,

312
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:18,560
and British protection is of
no great value in these wastes.

313
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:25,920
Thus, we turn towards Nejd,
inshallah,

314
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:30,160
and the only thread which is not cut
through is that which runs through

315
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:34,520
this little book, which is
the diary of my way, kept for you.

316
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,160
The Howeitat are great people.

317
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:14,480
They raid all across
to the Euphrates,

318
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:17,200
and are known for their
reckless courage.

319
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:22,400
Some objected to my photography,
and asked what it was for,

320
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:24,120
but I went on, and no word was said.

321
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:28,320
In the desert,
every newcomer is an enemy

322
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:30,280
until you know him to be a friend.

323
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:52,600
Today we arrived in Hayyil,
Amir ibn Rashid's capital.

324
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:57,040
I will not conceal from you,

325
00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:59,480
there have been
hours of considerable anxiety.

326
00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:02,920
War is all around us.

327
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:05,280
Ibn Rashid is raiding to the north,

328
00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:08,160
and Ibn Saud is gathering up
his powers to the south.

329
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:13,120
In Hayyil, murder is like
the spilling of milk.

330
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:19,880
On March 3rd, a certain
eunuch slave, Said,

331
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:22,280
informed me that I could not travel,

332
00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:24,240
neither could they give me my money.

333
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:31,320
The Amir's mother, Mudi, invited me
to visit the women of the Palace.

334
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:37,840
There they were, those women,
wrapped in Indian brocades,

335
00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:40,560
hung with jewels, served by slaves.

336
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:44,360
They passed from hand to hand.

337
00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:46,640
The victor takes them.
And think of it,

338
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,800
his hands are red with the blood
of their husband and children.

339
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,520
I passed the next days
in solitary confinement.

340
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:01,440
After dark, Said came with a bag
of gold and full permission to go.

341
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,840
And why they've now given way,
or why they did, I cannot guess.

342
00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:15,560
And thus it was that
my strange visit to Hayyil ended

343
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:17,600
after 11 days' imprisonment.

344
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:23,480
The worst of it is,
I can't forget it yet.

345
00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:26,160
I go on riding camels
through my dreams.

346
00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:53,520
Constantinople, May 20th, 1914.

347
00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:56,360
To the Right Honourable
Sir Edward Grey.

348
00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:00,920
I have the honour to report the
arrival of Miss Gertrude Bell

349
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:03,440
in Constantinople
on the 13th instance.

350
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,800
Miss Bell's journey, which is,
in all respects,

351
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:09,720
a most remarkable exploit,

352
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:13,400
has naturally excited
the greatest interest here.

353
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:16,680
Miss Bell has kindly promised to
furnish you with a detailed account

354
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:21,480
of her travels, the results
of which will be of great value.

355
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:23,920
Your most obedient humble servant,

356
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:25,800
Louis Mallet.

357
00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:36,800
Dear Domnul,

358
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:39,560
I got through to Hayyil,
but no further.

359
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:45,480
You will find me a savage, for I
have seen and heard strange things,

360
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:47,000
and they colour the mind.

361
00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:51,960
You must try to civilise me
a little, beloved Domnul.

362
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:56,600
But whether I can bear with England,

363
00:32:56,600 --> 00:33:00,120
come back to the same things
and do them all over again,

364
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,080
that is what I sometimes wonder.

365
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:06,200
Don't tell anyone that
the me they knew

366
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:08,560
will not come back
in the me that returns.

367
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:11,640
Perhaps they will not find out.

368
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:36,120
We must become the owners,
or at any rate the controllers,

369
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:38,760
at the source of at least
a proportion of the oil

370
00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:41,000
which we require.

371
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,840
Winston Churchill,
First Lord of the Admiralty.

372
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:01,680
Dearest, dearest Dick.

373
00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:05,080
Do you love me still?

374
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:10,320
I look back
and rage at my reluctance.

375
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:16,200
If I'd given more,
should I have held you closer?

376
00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:18,000
Drawn you back more surely?

377
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:22,920
Do you remember that my doctor
made me take morphea with me

378
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:24,920
on my last journey?

379
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:29,040
I never used it. That's why
I feel safe, whatever happens.

380
00:34:30,720 --> 00:34:32,400
Don't be missing.

381
00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:40,320
Today, I pack up all your letters,
dear queen of words,

382
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:42,600
and leave them addressed to you.

383
00:34:42,600 --> 00:34:44,520
Tomorrow, if the weather moderates,

384
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:47,400
I'm embarking on the collier
to Gallipoli.

385
00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:49,680
The wooden horse of Troy,

386
00:34:49,680 --> 00:34:52,000
which we're going to run
on the beach

387
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:55,680
and disembark by
an ingenious arrangement.

388
00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:58,680
If we fail,
it is political disaster.

389
00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:01,480
If we win, it will be
a surprising success

390
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:04,320
from which England gains but little.

391
00:35:07,720 --> 00:35:10,560
My dear, today, at last,

392
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:13,800
we have the account
of your splendid achievement.

393
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:17,320
Since I've heard nothing of you,
I conclude that you're all right,

394
00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:21,520
and I'm cheerful again,
after some days of wild anxiety.

395
00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:27,280
This is from my diary.

396
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,120
July, 1915.

397
00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:30,680
I have learned this summer

398
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,760
of a tragedy that has been
going on in our midst.

399
00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:36,400
Quite invisible to all, at any rate.

400
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,680
Gertrude had made friends
with a man who was Consul,

401
00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:41,480
somewhere in Arabia,

402
00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:43,680
and they discovered
that they loved each other,

403
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:45,720
and he was married.

404
00:35:45,720 --> 00:35:48,680
In March, he was ordered
out to the Dardanelles.

405
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:52,600
A month later, Gertrude heard
casually at a dinner party

406
00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:54,520
that he was dead.

407
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:56,880
It has ended her life.

408
00:35:56,880 --> 00:35:59,480
It is difficult to see how she can
build up anything

409
00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:01,600
out of the ruins left to her.

410
00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:05,080
Hers is not a happy
nor a kindly nature.

411
00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:08,960
Sorrow has dried up
all the springs of kindliness.

412
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:16,000
Darling Mother,

413
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:19,720
it's very curious what you tell me
about the anarchy of the universe.

414
00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:24,160
Perhaps, after all,
it isn't anarchy,

415
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:27,840
but only the end of the order
we're accustomed to.

416
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:33,680
There's no doubt it has
come to an end, east and west.

417
00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:38,320
There's room enough in the sun
for us all.

418
00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:42,520
I'm not certain, by the way,
that that's true.

419
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:47,560
Perhaps there's just not enough sun
to keep us all warm.

420
00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:17,320
My dear Wingate.

421
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:20,280
Miss Gertrude Bell,
who's a great friend of mine,

422
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:22,080
is about to go to Egypt.

423
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:24,840
She knows more about
the Arabs and Arabia

424
00:37:24,840 --> 00:37:28,400
than almost any other
living Englishman or woman.

425
00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:31,120
I'm sure you will like her
very much.

426
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:34,240
She ought to have been employed
ever so long ago,

427
00:37:34,240 --> 00:37:36,920
but our public offices
have such singular facility

428
00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:38,520
for never doing the right thing

429
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:42,080
that it's not until now that
her services have been utilised,

430
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:45,520
of all the departments in the world,
by the Admiralty.

431
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:50,000
Very sincerely yours, Lord Cromer.

432
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:57,360
30th November, 1915, Cairo.

433
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:01,440
Dearest Mother,

434
00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:04,920
I telegraphed you the morning after
my arrival and asked you to send me

435
00:38:04,920 --> 00:38:06,560
another gown and shirt.

436
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,280
It looks as if I might
be kept here some time.

437
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:15,120
Mr Hogarth and Mr Lawrence,

438
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:18,480
ex-digger at Carchemish and now
in the intelligence department,

439
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:21,480
came on board to meet me
and brought me to this hotel,

440
00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:23,000
where they're both staying.

441
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:30,120
Gertrude duly turned up last Friday
in very fair form.

442
00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:33,240
She is mending,
in health and spirit,

443
00:38:33,240 --> 00:38:35,920
and is beginning
to pervade the place.

444
00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:39,080
The military people here are
wondering if she is to be trusted,

445
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,240
and about how much
she is to be admitted.

446
00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:45,760
I told them that she'll settle that,
and they needn't worry.

447
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:55,120
I'm helping Mr Hogarth to fill
in the intelligence files

448
00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:58,880
with information as to tribes and
Sheiks, their numbers and lineage.

449
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:01,600
We're going to bring out a sort
of catalogue of the former,

450
00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:04,560
paying special attention to their
numbers and political grouping,

451
00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:06,160
and a new edition of the map.

452
00:39:07,720 --> 00:39:11,160
Our chief is Colonel Clayton,
whom I like very much.

453
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:14,640
When the war broke out,

454
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:17,920
the intelligence department realised
that the Arabs were going to have

455
00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:21,680
a considerable influence on its
outcome in the Eastern theatre.

456
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:24,440
In correspondence
with the Sheriff of Mecca,

457
00:39:24,440 --> 00:39:27,280
the British High Commissioner
for Egypt

458
00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:31,040
pledged to recognise and support
an independent Arab state

459
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:34,600
if the Arabs assisted Great Britain
in the war.

460
00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:39,680
At the same time,

461
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:43,360
Sir Mark Sykes and Mr Picot
entered into secret negotiations

462
00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:47,720
as to the boundaries
of the perspective Arab state,

463
00:39:47,720 --> 00:39:50,600
and the French and British
spheres of influence.

464
00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:22,400
To the people of the Wilayat
of Baghdad,

465
00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:26,640
our armies do not come
into your cities and lands

466
00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:30,800
as conquerors or enemies,
but as liberators.

467
00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:35,120
You are not to understand that it is
the wish of the British Government

468
00:40:35,120 --> 00:40:38,520
to impose upon you
alien institutions.

469
00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:41,200
FS Ward, Lieutenant General

470
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:43,680
commanding the British forces
in Iraq.

471
00:40:57,000 --> 00:40:59,840
15th April, 1917.

472
00:40:59,840 --> 00:41:04,240
Dearest parents, we are within
two hours of Baghdad.

473
00:41:04,240 --> 00:41:07,080
Today, we shall pass through
the battlefields.

474
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:11,600
There's nothing to see
in the stretching plain, I believe,

475
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:13,720
but the imagination clothes it.

476
00:41:15,800 --> 00:41:21,560
It's strange, isn't it, to be
treating all these tragic places

477
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:24,240
merely as stages of a journey?

478
00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:33,840
When I told the GOCN chief that some
of my officer staff are coming up

479
00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:36,520
to Baghdad, including Miss Bell,

480
00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:39,560
he expressed considerable misgiving
at the news.

481
00:41:39,560 --> 00:41:42,640
He feared her arrival might form
an inconvenient precedent

482
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:44,200
for other ladies.

483
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:48,080
But I reminded him that her services
had been specifically offered

484
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:49,920
to me by my predecessor,

485
00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:52,760
that I've regarded and treated her
no differently to any male officer

486
00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:56,720
myself, and that
her particular abilities -

487
00:41:56,720 --> 00:41:59,880
especially her knowledge
of intertribal relationships -

488
00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:01,640
could be very useful to me.

489
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:06,960
I had no doubt that Miss Bell
could find a place

490
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:08,680
if she stuck to literary work.

491
00:42:08,680 --> 00:42:11,560
Some sort of an outlet had to be
found for her energies.

492
00:42:18,200 --> 00:42:20,800
Dear Domnul, it never occurred to me

493
00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:23,560
to tell you that I'm
an assistant political officer,

494
00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:25,840
because it's quite unimportant.

495
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:29,800
Sir Percy gave me the title
when I was transferred to Baghdad.

496
00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:33,000
I have the right to be lodged and
fed and looked after when I'm ill,

497
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:34,960
and I earn a handsome salary -

498
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:36,680
300 rupees a month.

499
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:43,280
My duties are of the most
diverse kinds.

500
00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:44,640
We're very short-handed.

501
00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:46,400
I take on everything I can.

502
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:50,320
I keep an open door for
tribal sheiks and messengers

503
00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:53,000
from the desert,
whose business I discover,

504
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:55,000
and then behind all is my real job -

505
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:57,560
the gathering and sorting
of information.

506
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:03,000
Already, the new tribal maps and
tribe lists are getting into shape,

507
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:07,000
and the first batch of confidential
notes on Baghdad personalities

508
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:10,400
will be issued to our
political offices tomorrow.

509
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:11,840
That's not bad going.

510
00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:17,320
All visitors were turned over
to her,

511
00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:20,760
and were pumped dry
in an understanding way.

512
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:23,600
Many visitors from the desert
were surprised that she knew

513
00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:26,680
some inner detail of their own
or their tribe's history.

514
00:43:26,680 --> 00:43:30,160
It was quickly realised
that Miss Bell, a woman,

515
00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:32,120
to the Arabs' astonishment,

516
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:35,160
had a gift for finding out
what you really wished to say,

517
00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:37,640
and understanding
your point of view.

518
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:31,960
I'm now going to cultivate
the Jewish community,

519
00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:33,680
and find out more about them.

520
00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:40,480
There are 80,000 in Baghdad,
out of a population of 200,000.

521
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:45,480
So far, I've only met the bigwigs,
such as the Chief Rabbi.

522
00:44:46,960 --> 00:44:50,680
There's no doubt they'll be
a great power here some day.

523
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:05,920
One of the worst drawbacks
of the occupation

524
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:08,720
from the point of view of
the inhabitants of the country

525
00:45:08,720 --> 00:45:10,760
is the requisitioning of houses.

526
00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:16,520
I don't see what's to be done,
for we haven't time to build,

527
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:18,040
and we must be lodged.

528
00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:21,080
But it's a terrible hardship
to the luckless ejected ones.

529
00:45:26,240 --> 00:45:30,000
The real difficulty under which we
labour here is that we don't know

530
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:33,120
exactly what we intend to do
in this country.

531
00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:38,560
We've rushed into this business
with our usual disregard

532
00:45:38,560 --> 00:45:40,960
for a comprehensive
political scheme.

533
00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:50,200
Can you persuade people to take your
side when you're not sure in the end

534
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:52,600
whether you'll be there
to take theirs?

535
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:03,280
I dined last night with some
American missionaries

536
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:04,720
called Van Ess.

537
00:46:04,720 --> 00:46:07,200
He has an unexampled knowledge
of the country,

538
00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:09,400
and gives me a good deal of help.

539
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:11,560
And she is particularly nice.

540
00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:13,320
I see her often.

541
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:15,160
She and I had a great deal
in common.

542
00:46:16,160 --> 00:46:19,560
Except she was
very clothes conscious.

543
00:46:19,560 --> 00:46:23,560
And one hot summer, when I was
going to Bombay on the way to Simla,

544
00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:26,600
she asked me to buy her
some thin dresses.

545
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:29,720
I told her I had seen
attractive ones in a specialty shop

546
00:46:29,720 --> 00:46:31,440
near the Taj Mahal Hotel,

547
00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:34,480
but I thought they were probably
very expensive.

548
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:39,640
She said, "Pay whatever you have to,
my dear, I must have clothes."

549
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:52,320
Dearest dear Father,
did I mention I had bronchitis?

550
00:46:54,280 --> 00:46:57,120
I'm quite recovered,
and much less thin.

551
00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:02,440
We see no war here, but an
occasional hostile aeroplane.

552
00:47:04,240 --> 00:47:06,000
I have been very busy this week

553
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:09,320
with the translation
of the Shia traditional books.

554
00:47:09,320 --> 00:47:11,400
You see, the first thing
in this Shia country

555
00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:14,320
is that we should have a
real understanding of the things

556
00:47:14,320 --> 00:47:16,400
that lie at the bottom
of the Shia mind.

557
00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:28,080
One January,

558
00:47:28,080 --> 00:47:31,720
I took the opportunity to tour some
of the tribal areas with Miss Bell,

559
00:47:31,720 --> 00:47:34,600
who came from Baghdad
for the purpose.

560
00:47:34,600 --> 00:47:37,360
We travelled mostly by boat.

561
00:47:37,360 --> 00:47:40,520
Poled along the canals
and across the swamps.

562
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:46,000
We visited a number of sheiks,

563
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:48,800
who entertained us
in their large guesthouses.

564
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:52,200
And in bright, cold weather.

565
00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:54,320
It was a delightful trip...

566
00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:57,880
..during which I learnt
a great deal.

567
00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:03,880
All the sheiks adored al-Khatun,
the lady.

568
00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:18,440
The people I meet are all kind
and pleasant.

569
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:23,080
I like everybody,

570
00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:25,760
and no-one in particular
any better than all the rest.

571
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:30,520
Do you know, what I really want
is a wife

572
00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:32,960
to look after my household
and my clothes!

573
00:48:34,720 --> 00:48:38,440
I quite understand why men out here
marry anyone who turns up.

574
00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:44,520
No... No, one could not say
that she was popular,

575
00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:48,240
outside the small circle of highly
placed people in which she moved.

576
00:48:48,240 --> 00:48:50,320
She was abrupt and intolerant.

577
00:48:50,320 --> 00:48:52,200
Snooty, perhaps.

578
00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:55,280
Especially with other women, with
whom she could be downright rude.

579
00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:57,760
She was always very nice to me.

580
00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:01,080
And I thought she was as much
my friend as my husband's.

581
00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:07,640
Of course, I do have a university
degree, and I do speak Arabic.

582
00:49:09,280 --> 00:49:13,360
I think John and I saw
the very best side of her.

583
00:49:13,360 --> 00:49:16,600
But it was just as real
as her arrogant side.

584
00:49:17,800 --> 00:49:20,120
Which was all many people saw.

585
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:28,960
Today, with the soft air
blowing into my room,

586
00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:31,240
I thought of Rounton in February,

587
00:49:31,240 --> 00:49:33,920
and wondered whether by chance
it was snowing with you.

588
00:49:35,880 --> 00:49:38,200
Oh, Father, dearest.

589
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:42,320
Do you know that it's just three
years since Dick and I parted?

590
00:49:43,600 --> 00:49:45,200
I can't think why the recurring date

591
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:48,760
should bring back all memories
so strongly, but it's so.

592
00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:55,880
I've brought back work to do
at night after dinner.

593
00:49:55,880 --> 00:49:57,920
Oh, thank heaven,
there's plenty of it.

594
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:03,160
The truth is that one can't do
without that narcotic.

595
00:50:04,360 --> 00:50:07,480
To be idle means
having time to think.

596
00:50:09,720 --> 00:50:12,560
And no thoughts are bearable.

597
00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:38,360
On my way home yesterday, I came
in by motor, I stopped at Babylon,

598
00:50:38,360 --> 00:50:41,280
having been asked by Sir Percy
to advise on what we ought to do

599
00:50:41,280 --> 00:50:43,440
about the preservation
of antiquities.

600
00:50:44,680 --> 00:50:47,400
And what we should do
to stop illicit digging.

601
00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:54,280
Tempi passati
weigh very heavily there.

602
00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:57,880
Not that I was thinking of
Nebuchadnezzar,

603
00:50:57,880 --> 00:50:59,440
nor yet of Alexander.

604
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:03,280
But of the warm welcome
I used to find.

605
00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:13,160
My heart aches when I stood
in the empty, dusty little room

606
00:51:13,160 --> 00:51:16,120
where the Germans and
I held eager conversations

607
00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:19,040
over plans of Babylon or Ukhaidhir.

608
00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:27,560
I often think of my German friends,
and long for news of them.

609
00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:30,920
Koldewey, Andrae, and many others.

610
00:51:32,560 --> 00:51:34,120
Where are you all?

611
00:51:35,800 --> 00:51:40,240
Remember that, for us at least,
friendship is stronger than war.

612
00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:35,240
Darling Father,

613
00:52:35,240 --> 00:52:36,560
you must have been surprised

614
00:52:36,560 --> 00:52:38,760
at not hearing from me before,
but the truth is,

615
00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:40,560
I've dropped into a world so amazing

616
00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:43,400
that up to now I've done nothing
but gape at it.

617
00:52:46,040 --> 00:52:49,400
Our Eastern affairs are complex
beyond all words,

618
00:52:49,400 --> 00:52:51,120
and won't be tackled
until a settlement

619
00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:52,960
with our enemies has been reached.

620
00:52:56,280 --> 00:52:59,680
I think an Arab state in Mesopotamia
is a possibility.

621
00:53:02,320 --> 00:53:05,040
Experts on Western Arabia,
both military and civil,

622
00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:06,320
were there in force.

623
00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:10,200
But no-one except Miss Bell had
any first-hand experience of Iraq

624
00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:12,200
or Nedj.

625
00:53:13,440 --> 00:53:15,520
I also saw Sharif Feisal,

626
00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:18,800
who was sent as a representative
of an independent Arab state.

627
00:53:38,440 --> 00:53:40,640
My dear Sir Percy,

628
00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:43,240
it is maddening
to have nothing settled.

629
00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:49,160
At the back of my mind, there is the
firm conviction that no people likes

630
00:53:49,160 --> 00:53:51,440
permanently to be governed
by another.

631
00:53:53,000 --> 00:53:55,760
I hope that the transition
from British to native rule

632
00:53:55,760 --> 00:53:57,480
will be made peacefully...

633
00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:03,400
..for AT Wilson seems to be taking
a rather definite anti-Arab line.

634
00:54:04,640 --> 00:54:06,920
I send you a letter
from General Clayton,

635
00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:10,160
because it seems to echo
our thought.

636
00:54:10,160 --> 00:54:12,120
Burn it when you've read it.

637
00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:17,760
Dear Gertrude, I agree that you
probably are in for difficulties

638
00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:19,560
in Mesopotamia.

639
00:54:19,560 --> 00:54:23,000
I hope that the British hand
will be a light one to start with,

640
00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:25,600
even at the cost of some efficiency,

641
00:54:25,600 --> 00:54:27,640
and that the local
national aspirations

642
00:54:27,640 --> 00:54:29,840
will not be snubbed too ruthlessly.

643
00:54:31,640 --> 00:54:34,440
I feel that we should start slowly,

644
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:37,120
and let the people come to us
for help and guidance,

645
00:54:37,120 --> 00:54:39,320
rather than impose
Western efficiency

646
00:54:39,320 --> 00:54:40,960
too suddenly on Orientals,

647
00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:43,080
to whom it has been unknown
for centuries.

648
00:54:45,240 --> 00:54:48,560
I fear that catchword,
British efficiency.

649
00:54:48,560 --> 00:54:51,880
You, I know,
will realise what I mean.

650
00:54:55,920 --> 00:54:58,880
It was up to us to get more work
and more money out of the people

651
00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:02,120
of these territories,
and perhaps more produce, also.

652
00:55:02,120 --> 00:55:05,440
The home government started to
interfere wholly unjustifiably

653
00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:07,400
in local matters.

654
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:10,640
They wired out forbidding flogging
of any kind.

655
00:55:10,640 --> 00:55:13,600
I need hardly say that
I did not accept their orders.

656
00:55:14,840 --> 00:55:18,160
Miss Bell, who was a legacy
left to me by Sir Percy Cox,

657
00:55:18,160 --> 00:55:19,840
continued to earn her views

658
00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:22,920
as to the necessity
for an Arab head of state.

659
00:55:22,920 --> 00:55:25,000
It was wholly out of the question.

660
00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:37,480
I think we're on the edge of a
pretty considerable Arab nationalist

661
00:55:37,480 --> 00:55:40,280
demonstration, with which
I'm a good deal in sympathy.

662
00:55:42,000 --> 00:55:43,880
They're out for independence.

663
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:50,160
I and others have been telling AT
that we were pressing them too hard.

664
00:55:52,960 --> 00:55:55,400
There are constant meetings
in mosques,

665
00:55:55,400 --> 00:55:59,040
where the mental temperature
rises a great deal above 110.

666
00:56:01,840 --> 00:56:04,320
I personally don't think
there will be an outbreak

667
00:56:04,320 --> 00:56:07,520
either here or in the provinces,
but it's touch and go.

668
00:56:07,520 --> 00:56:11,760
In point of fact, I'm entirely
in sympathy with Sulaiman Faidhi,

669
00:56:11,760 --> 00:56:13,680
whose views are enclosed.

670
00:56:42,360 --> 00:56:46,160
The allocation of the mandate
for Mesopotamia to Great Britain

671
00:56:46,160 --> 00:56:49,040
was publicly announced on May 5th.

672
00:56:50,680 --> 00:56:53,480
Probably nothing could have
prevented the explosion.

673
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:03,160
I doubt if the Arabs
will accept the mandate,

674
00:57:03,160 --> 00:57:06,160
and they will be encouraged in
refusing to do so by the Americans,

675
00:57:06,160 --> 00:57:08,920
who are extremely eager
to make a treaty of their own.

676
00:57:11,160 --> 00:57:14,680
Oil is the trouble, of course.
Detestable stuff.

677
00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:21,840
My dearest girl, the papers in the
US are kicking because we're not

678
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:23,640
allowed a share in the oil ground

679
00:57:23,640 --> 00:57:27,160
grabbed by Britain while we were
doing their fighting in France.

680
00:57:27,160 --> 00:57:30,480
You may not think that your bill,
way out in far-away Baghdad,

681
00:57:30,480 --> 00:57:32,840
is very important.
As a matter of fact,

682
00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:36,240
we are in the centre of one of the
biggest business battles in years.

683
00:57:37,880 --> 00:57:40,640
June 17th, 1920.

684
00:57:40,640 --> 00:57:43,040
Standard Oil company's
representative in Baghdad

685
00:57:43,040 --> 00:57:45,520
is reported to be in close touch
with extremists.

686
00:57:45,520 --> 00:57:48,600
We cannot exclude the possibility
that they may be getting

687
00:57:48,600 --> 00:57:50,920
financial assistance
from Standard Oil.

688
00:57:59,440 --> 00:58:02,560
All the tribes are out
in full rebellion.

689
00:58:03,880 --> 00:58:07,760
We've evacuated the barrage,
and are evacuating Diwaniyah.

690
00:58:07,760 --> 00:58:12,360
You realise that we may be at any
moment cut off from the universe

691
00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:15,200
if the Tigris tribes rise.

692
00:58:16,920 --> 00:58:18,960
AT never tells me anything.

693
00:58:18,960 --> 00:58:22,280
His chief idea is that
I should be kept in my place.

694
00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:24,440
The truth is that
I'm in a minority of one

695
00:58:24,440 --> 00:58:27,320
in the Mesopotamian
political service, or nearly.

696
00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:30,400
Yet I'm so sure I'm right
that I would go to the stake for it.

697
00:58:32,440 --> 00:58:34,440
Regarding Standard Oil,

698
00:58:34,440 --> 00:58:38,160
no entry is too base for an
American who is out for the boom.

699
00:58:38,160 --> 00:58:40,760
Sunlight is thrown on the subject
by this letter,

700
00:58:40,760 --> 00:58:42,520
intercepted by our censors.

701
00:58:45,400 --> 00:58:49,720
The trouble started from a small
town refusing to pay their taxes.

702
00:58:49,720 --> 00:58:52,360
The Civil Commission had told them
that if taxes were not paid

703
00:58:52,360 --> 00:58:56,280
in six weeks, they would bomb
their village from aeroplanes.

704
00:58:56,280 --> 00:58:59,280
Nothing further was heard
from the village.

705
00:58:59,280 --> 00:59:02,360
At the end of six weeks, a plane
appeared, and bombed the town.

706
00:59:04,320 --> 00:59:07,480
The village immediately
went out on the act of warpath.

707
00:59:07,480 --> 00:59:11,120
This led to some neighbouring
villages refusing to pay taxes.

708
00:59:13,160 --> 00:59:16,920
The British may be able to terrorise
the Arab into temporary submission,

709
00:59:16,920 --> 00:59:19,920
but he will never be
a contented citizen.

710
00:59:58,360 --> 01:00:00,160
In the light of the events
of the last month,

711
01:00:00,160 --> 01:00:01,840
there's no getting out of
the conclusion

712
01:00:01,840 --> 01:00:04,160
that we have made an immense
failure here.

713
01:00:06,520 --> 01:00:10,160
We had promised an Arab government
with British advisers,

714
01:00:10,160 --> 01:00:13,680
and had set up a British Government
with Arab advisers.

715
01:00:16,480 --> 01:00:19,720
It's difficult to be burning
villages at one end of the country

716
01:00:19,720 --> 01:00:21,560
and assuring people at the other end

717
01:00:21,560 --> 01:00:25,120
that we really have handed over
responsibility to native ministers.

718
01:00:26,800 --> 01:00:30,920
The Turks didn't govern, and
we have tried to govern, and failed.

719
01:00:32,200 --> 01:00:35,120
I personally think we tried
to govern too much.

720
01:00:47,760 --> 01:00:49,080
On October 4th,

721
01:00:49,080 --> 01:00:51,760
I restored the keys to the office
of the Civil Commissioner,

722
01:00:51,760 --> 01:00:53,520
and 24 hours later, I left Baghdad.

723
01:00:54,960 --> 01:00:56,600
Defeatism was nowhere evident.

724
01:01:10,120 --> 01:01:12,800
Dearest Father.
You have been the only person

725
01:01:12,800 --> 01:01:14,360
to whom I have related fully

726
01:01:14,360 --> 01:01:17,160
the ups and downs of these
extremely difficult months.

727
01:01:18,680 --> 01:01:22,160
I feel that whatever might happen,
my family is a sure refuge,

728
01:01:22,160 --> 01:01:25,840
and I bless you all for it,
more than I can tell you.

729
01:01:29,440 --> 01:01:32,280
This week has been rich in letters
from you and Mother

730
01:01:32,280 --> 01:01:35,600
describing your Christmas party,
which sounds very delightful.

731
01:01:37,200 --> 01:01:40,240
Do you know that this is the
eighth Christmas I've been away?

732
01:01:41,640 --> 01:01:43,440
1913, Arabia,

733
01:01:43,440 --> 01:01:45,720
1914, Boulogne,

734
01:01:45,720 --> 01:01:47,960
1915, Egypt,

735
01:01:47,960 --> 01:01:49,680
1916, Basra,

736
01:01:49,680 --> 01:01:51,720
and all the rest, Baghdad.

737
01:01:51,720 --> 01:01:53,360
Extraordinary, isn't it?

738
01:01:55,560 --> 01:01:58,440
On Christmas Day, I went to
an enormous dinner party

739
01:01:58,440 --> 01:02:01,040
for all the Political Service
and their wives.

740
01:02:02,760 --> 01:02:05,080
I came home early
when they began to dance.

741
01:02:06,800 --> 01:02:08,480
I dance no longer.

742
01:02:18,000 --> 01:02:21,280
CHIMING

743
01:02:26,760 --> 01:02:30,280
I've just got Mother's letter of
December 15th saying there's

744
01:02:30,280 --> 01:02:34,160
a fandango about my report on the
civil administration in Mesopotamia.

745
01:02:35,960 --> 01:02:38,200
The general line taken by the press

746
01:02:38,200 --> 01:02:40,720
seems to be that
it's most remarkable

747
01:02:40,720 --> 01:02:43,840
that a dog should be able to
stand up on its hind legs at all.

748
01:02:43,840 --> 01:02:47,080
i.e., a female write a white paper.

749
01:02:47,080 --> 01:02:49,320
I hope they'll drop
that sort of wonder

750
01:02:49,320 --> 01:02:51,320
and pay attention
to the report itself,

751
01:02:51,320 --> 01:02:54,440
if it will help them to understand
what Mesopotamia is like.

752
01:03:04,240 --> 01:03:07,720
Sir Percy asked me if I would
come onto his personal staff

753
01:03:07,720 --> 01:03:09,320
as Oriental Secretary,

754
01:03:09,320 --> 01:03:13,080
and I said I would love to serve
with him in any capacity he chose.

755
01:03:17,400 --> 01:03:19,840
I'm beginning to get a hold
of the women here.

756
01:03:19,840 --> 01:03:22,000
I mean, the women
of the better classes.

757
01:03:23,320 --> 01:03:25,840
I have them to little tea parties
at my home.

758
01:03:27,120 --> 01:03:30,440
I get to know a side of Baghdad
which I could know no other way.

759
01:03:31,840 --> 01:03:33,880
Until I came in 1917,

760
01:03:33,880 --> 01:03:36,360
none of the Muslim women
and very few of the Jews

761
01:03:36,360 --> 01:03:37,800
had ever been to parties.

762
01:03:39,240 --> 01:03:42,720
Yesterday, I arranged a
ladies' night at the cinematograph.

763
01:03:43,800 --> 01:03:46,800
I shall have to do an explaining
of the pictures myself,

764
01:03:46,800 --> 01:03:49,040
as we can't have a man in to do it.

765
01:03:49,040 --> 01:03:51,800
However, anything to make
a little social movement,

766
01:03:51,800 --> 01:03:54,400
even if you have to exclude
all the chaps.

767
01:05:01,480 --> 01:05:03,720
I had a well-spent morning
at the office

768
01:05:03,720 --> 01:05:06,600
making out the southern desert
frontier of the Iraq.

769
01:05:06,600 --> 01:05:09,560
I think I succeeded in compiling
a reasonable border.

770
01:05:12,160 --> 01:05:14,760
She spent many hours in our house.

771
01:05:14,760 --> 01:05:16,000
John would tell her,

772
01:05:16,000 --> 01:05:19,720
"Gertrude, you are flying in the
face of four millenniums of history

773
01:05:19,720 --> 01:05:21,000
"if you try to draw a line

774
01:05:21,000 --> 01:05:24,400
"around Iraq and call it
a political entity."

775
01:05:24,400 --> 01:05:27,760
They argued endlessly,
but always amicably.

776
01:05:32,560 --> 01:05:36,160
I am pretty certain Sunni Mosul
must be retained as a part of the

777
01:05:36,160 --> 01:05:38,760
Mesopotamian state,
in order to keep the balance.

778
01:05:43,360 --> 01:05:45,600
I don't doubt
that the final authority

779
01:05:45,600 --> 01:05:47,480
must be in the hands of the Sunnis,

780
01:05:47,480 --> 01:05:49,680
in spite of their
numerical inferiority.

781
01:05:51,320 --> 01:05:55,040
Otherwise, you will have
a mujtahid-run theocratic state.

782
01:05:58,760 --> 01:06:02,640
If only we could manage
to install a native head of state.

783
01:06:25,400 --> 01:06:28,240
Cairo, March 12th, 1921.

784
01:06:28,240 --> 01:06:30,000
We arrived yesterday.

785
01:06:32,120 --> 01:06:34,440
TE Lawrence and others
met us at the station.

786
01:06:35,520 --> 01:06:38,320
We retired at once to my bedroom
and had an hour's talk,

787
01:06:38,320 --> 01:06:40,800
after which I had a long talk
with Clementine,

788
01:06:40,800 --> 01:06:44,240
whilst Sir Percy was closeted
with Mr Churchill.

789
01:06:44,240 --> 01:06:46,680
Oh, Sir Geoffrey Archer is here.

790
01:06:46,680 --> 01:06:49,200
A nice man,
with two enchanting baby lions,

791
01:06:49,200 --> 01:06:51,120
which he's taking to the zoo.

792
01:06:53,600 --> 01:06:55,880
Ja'far Pasha,
the Minister for Defence,

793
01:06:55,880 --> 01:06:57,200
and Sassoon Eskell,

794
01:06:57,200 --> 01:07:01,160
the Minister of Finance - he's from
a leading Baghdad Jewish family -

795
01:07:01,160 --> 01:07:03,680
were much gratified
at being asked to come.

796
01:07:03,680 --> 01:07:06,240
And I think it a masterstroke
to take them.

797
01:07:07,600 --> 01:07:10,800
It will give the conference
a feeling of the reality of the

798
01:07:10,800 --> 01:07:14,680
Arab government. After all, it's
their fate which is to be decided,

799
01:07:14,680 --> 01:07:16,760
so why shouldn't they take a hand?

800
01:07:23,480 --> 01:07:27,000
The selection of Feisal
as Amir of the Iraq is the one hope

801
01:07:27,000 --> 01:07:29,880
of establishing speedily
a stable Arab government.

802
01:07:29,880 --> 01:07:32,240
There's no possible alternative.

803
01:07:32,240 --> 01:07:34,760
The people will not accept
a local Arab,

804
01:07:34,760 --> 01:07:38,480
because there's none they trust to
refrain from grinding his own axe.

805
01:07:38,480 --> 01:07:42,040
And after all, Muhammad
is Feisal's direct ancestor.

806
01:07:44,040 --> 01:07:45,960
Churchill to the Prime Minister,

807
01:07:45,960 --> 01:07:49,480
March 14th, 1921,
secret and personal.

808
01:07:49,480 --> 01:07:51,880
Prospects Mesopotamia, promising.

809
01:07:53,120 --> 01:07:56,600
We do not want any announcement,
even in guarded terms.

810
01:07:58,760 --> 01:08:01,000
We also discussed the issue
of Kurdistan.

811
01:08:02,440 --> 01:08:06,880
Kirkuk and Solimania, and certain
districts north of Mosul.

812
01:08:06,880 --> 01:08:10,720
I told the committee that these
divisions formed an integral part

813
01:08:10,720 --> 01:08:14,000
of the country, and should
be retained as part of Iraq.

814
01:08:21,040 --> 01:08:25,000
Churchill to Prime Minister,
March 18th, 1921.

815
01:08:26,080 --> 01:08:29,720
I think we shall reach unanimous
conclusion amongst all authorities

816
01:08:29,720 --> 01:08:33,360
that Feisal offers hope
of best and cheapest solution.

817
01:08:34,720 --> 01:08:38,320
The procedure of his adoption,
which was devised by Cox,

818
01:08:38,320 --> 01:08:40,360
Miss Bell and Lawrence,

819
01:08:40,360 --> 01:08:43,920
carries with it unanimous opinion
of all authorities here.

820
01:08:49,040 --> 01:08:53,240
If we bring it off, we shall make
a difference in the world.

821
01:08:53,240 --> 01:08:55,800
For it will be the beginning
of a quite new thing,

822
01:08:55,800 --> 01:08:59,280
which will serve as an example,
let's hope, not as a warning.

823
01:09:27,760 --> 01:09:31,120
Feisal reached Iraq
early in the summer of 1921.

824
01:09:33,360 --> 01:09:37,320
His reception in Basra was lukewarm,
and the Arab governor,

825
01:09:37,320 --> 01:09:40,600
riding up the front of the
procession, begged the bystanders,

826
01:09:40,600 --> 01:09:42,080
"For Allah's sake, cheer!"

827
01:09:44,840 --> 01:09:49,320
His reception in Baghdad
was outwardly more enthusiastic.

828
01:09:53,720 --> 01:09:56,480
Somehow or other,
Feisal must be proclaimed king.

829
01:09:57,720 --> 01:10:00,680
One is straining every nerve
to pull the matter forward -

830
01:10:00,680 --> 01:10:02,920
talking, persuading, writing.

831
01:10:02,920 --> 01:10:06,040
I find myself carrying
on the argument even in my sleep.

832
01:10:07,440 --> 01:10:11,360
You may rely on this - I'll never
engage in making kings again.

833
01:10:11,360 --> 01:10:13,440
It's too great a strain.

834
01:10:39,720 --> 01:10:43,000
Feisal looked very dignified,
but much strung up.

835
01:10:44,760 --> 01:10:47,200
He looked along the front row,
and caught my eye,

836
01:10:47,200 --> 01:10:49,280
and I gave him a tiny salute.

837
01:10:49,280 --> 01:10:53,800
Then, Saiyid Husain read Sir Percy's
proclamation - Long Live The King.

838
01:10:55,040 --> 01:10:58,080
And the band played
God Save The King.

839
01:10:58,080 --> 01:11:00,040
They have no national anthem yet.

840
01:11:05,440 --> 01:11:09,080
Any election in a country where only
20% of the men are illiterate

841
01:11:09,080 --> 01:11:14,560
is unconvincing, but it was easy to
ignore vague unfavourable opinions.

842
01:11:42,760 --> 01:11:44,240
When I visited Gertrude,

843
01:11:44,240 --> 01:11:47,440
she asked me if I would like
to go to tea with the King.

844
01:11:47,440 --> 01:11:50,560
Talking all the time,
now in English to me,

845
01:11:50,560 --> 01:11:52,800
now in Arabic to the eager servants,

846
01:11:52,800 --> 01:11:56,520
she had the gift of making everyone
suddenly feel eager.

847
01:11:57,920 --> 01:11:59,640
So we sat talking,

848
01:11:59,640 --> 01:12:02,400
as friends who have not seen
one another for a long time,

849
01:12:02,400 --> 01:12:05,000
until it was time to go
and meet the King.

850
01:12:07,000 --> 01:12:08,960
Gertrude seemed to be conversant

851
01:12:08,960 --> 01:12:11,560
with every detail
of his housekeeping,

852
01:12:11,560 --> 01:12:14,360
as well as with every detail
of the government of his kingdom.

853
01:12:16,480 --> 01:12:18,920
I watched them both.

854
01:12:18,920 --> 01:12:21,640
The Arab prince
and the Englishwoman,

855
01:12:21,640 --> 01:12:25,160
who were trying to build up
a new Mesopotamia between them.

856
01:12:42,120 --> 01:12:45,240
This evening, I went swimming
with the young men in the office.

857
01:12:45,240 --> 01:12:47,240
It was supremely delicious.

858
01:12:49,440 --> 01:12:51,040
Opposite where we bathe,

859
01:12:51,040 --> 01:12:53,600
Feisal was standing on the balcony
of his new house,

860
01:12:53,600 --> 01:12:56,120
watching us dive from the buoy
in midstream.

861
01:13:03,720 --> 01:13:07,400
Have I ever told you what the
river's like on a hot summer night?

862
01:13:07,400 --> 01:13:11,640
At dusk, the mist hangs
in long white bands over the water,

863
01:13:11,640 --> 01:13:13,480
and the twilight fades.

864
01:13:16,240 --> 01:13:19,320
Silently, a boat
slips down the stream.

865
01:13:20,600 --> 01:13:25,120
"Slowly, slowly!" the voices of the
quffahjis drift across the water.

866
01:13:25,120 --> 01:13:27,520
"Don't ruffle the river
lest we sink!"

867
01:13:29,880 --> 01:13:34,120
If the floating votive candles
reach the last house still burning,

868
01:13:34,120 --> 01:13:35,800
the sick man will recover

869
01:13:35,800 --> 01:13:38,320
and the baby will be born safely
into this world

870
01:13:38,320 --> 01:13:41,040
of glittering lights
and bewildering reflections.

871
01:13:43,520 --> 01:13:45,640
Goodbye, dearest.

872
01:13:45,640 --> 01:13:48,320
However many native lands
I may have,

873
01:13:48,320 --> 01:13:51,640
I've only one
father and mother anyway.

874
01:13:51,640 --> 01:13:55,920
And I'm therefore ever your
devoted daughter, Gertrude.

875
01:14:08,440 --> 01:14:10,440
Dearest Father,

876
01:14:10,440 --> 01:14:13,240
your letter of June 28th
was rather despondent

877
01:14:13,240 --> 01:14:15,920
about the fortunes of the family.

878
01:14:15,920 --> 01:14:17,600
Indeed, it's very hard

879
01:14:17,600 --> 01:14:20,280
that you should have fallen
on such difficult times.

880
01:14:21,720 --> 01:14:24,280
But you will see
it will work out all right.

881
01:14:28,000 --> 01:14:31,080
By the way, I have been figuring
in my capacity as director

882
01:14:31,080 --> 01:14:33,720
of antiquities. We are starting -

883
01:14:33,720 --> 01:14:36,480
what do you think? -
the Iraq Museum!

884
01:14:40,200 --> 01:14:42,480
Mr Woolley arrived on Sunday.

885
01:14:42,480 --> 01:14:45,760
I knew him first
when he was digging at Carchemish,

886
01:14:45,760 --> 01:14:48,520
and next as intelligence officer
in Cairo.

887
01:14:48,520 --> 01:14:52,120
He's a tiresome little man,
but a first-class digger.

888
01:14:52,120 --> 01:14:54,720
They are going to dig Ur.

889
01:15:02,600 --> 01:15:05,600
Before nine,
we started the division.

890
01:15:05,600 --> 01:15:10,040
It began by my winning the golden
scarab on the toss of a rupee,

891
01:15:10,040 --> 01:15:12,440
and we carried on till 12.30,
when I struck.

892
01:15:14,760 --> 01:15:18,120
I had to tell them that I must take
the milking scene.

893
01:15:18,120 --> 01:15:20,960
In my capacity
as director of antiquities,

894
01:15:20,960 --> 01:15:22,480
I'm an Iraqi official

895
01:15:22,480 --> 01:15:25,840
and bound by the terms on which
we gave the permit for excavation.

896
01:15:29,520 --> 01:15:33,560
The division of objects, no matter
how painful in the process,

897
01:15:33,560 --> 01:15:38,120
was not as unfavourable to ourselves
as I had feared.

898
01:15:38,120 --> 01:15:44,240
The Iraqi government took the golden
scaraboid and the milking scenes.

899
01:15:44,240 --> 01:15:46,960
I surrendered the bulk
of the cylinder seals.

900
01:15:48,400 --> 01:15:51,840
Miss Bell seemed to think that
she'd been far too lenient.

901
01:15:51,840 --> 01:15:56,840
Her ambition was to create a museum
worthy of the great history of Iraq

902
01:15:56,840 --> 01:15:59,520
and essential in the study
of its past.

903
01:15:59,520 --> 01:16:02,240
And the fulfilment of that ambition

904
01:16:02,240 --> 01:16:05,240
is the greatest material monument
to her.

905
01:16:19,200 --> 01:16:21,760
This is, I fear, going to be
a very scrappy letter

906
01:16:21,760 --> 01:16:23,760
as I'm rather overcome
with departure.

907
01:16:25,000 --> 01:16:29,440
Last week, Sir Percy left,
a very moving farewell.

908
01:16:29,440 --> 01:16:33,240
He has given me a photograph
of himself in a silver frame,

909
01:16:33,240 --> 01:16:36,960
and across the corner, he's written,
"To the best of comrades."

910
01:16:36,960 --> 01:16:39,920
Isn't that the nicest thing
he could possibly have written?

911
01:16:46,240 --> 01:16:49,560
I'm happy in feeling that
I've got the love and confidence

912
01:16:49,560 --> 01:16:51,080
of this country.

913
01:16:52,640 --> 01:16:56,120
It may not be the intimate happiness
which I've missed,

914
01:16:56,120 --> 01:17:00,040
but it's a very wonderful
and absorbing thing -

915
01:17:00,040 --> 01:17:02,240
almost too absorbing.

916
01:17:05,360 --> 01:17:09,120
The work has been so interesting
that, as far as I'm concerned,

917
01:17:09,120 --> 01:17:11,960
I couldn't have expected
a better destiny.

918
01:17:17,120 --> 01:17:19,720
When the days of improvisation
and makeshift passed

919
01:17:19,720 --> 01:17:21,560
and the civil servant took over,

920
01:17:21,560 --> 01:17:24,360
her usefulness to the
High Commission steadily waned.

921
01:17:25,600 --> 01:17:28,080
I believe she felt this very much.

922
01:17:28,080 --> 01:17:32,120
So she'd flunk herself with
characteristic enthusiasm and energy

923
01:17:32,120 --> 01:17:35,720
into her archaeological work,
but this did not compensate

924
01:17:35,720 --> 01:17:37,840
for the gradual slipping down
from the summit,

925
01:17:37,840 --> 01:17:40,000
where the great affairs of state
were managed.

926
01:17:43,880 --> 01:17:46,040
Dear Domnul,

927
01:17:46,040 --> 01:17:48,480
it's late and I'm unable to sleep.

928
01:17:50,400 --> 01:17:54,320
Tomorrow, Sir Henry Dobbs,
the new High Commissioner,

929
01:17:54,320 --> 01:17:57,440
gives an official dinner to the
King, Cabinet and advisers,

930
01:17:57,440 --> 01:17:58,920
a male dinner.

931
01:17:58,920 --> 01:18:01,320
He told me about it
before I went to Ur.

932
01:18:01,320 --> 01:18:04,000
When I came back, I asked him,
as man-to-man,

933
01:18:04,000 --> 01:18:05,800
whether he wanted me to come.

934
01:18:05,800 --> 01:18:08,960
He said, "Yes, of course,
if you won't feel smothered."

935
01:18:09,960 --> 01:18:13,400
I said that I thought,
as a high official in his office,

936
01:18:13,400 --> 01:18:16,520
I was sexless and that
I ought to come, and would.

937
01:18:18,280 --> 01:18:20,160
Sir Percy, on these occasions,

938
01:18:20,160 --> 01:18:23,240
always treated me
simply as an official.

939
01:18:23,240 --> 01:18:25,200
I still miss him.

940
01:18:30,520 --> 01:18:33,960
One is extraordinarily lonely
with no-one of one's own.

941
01:18:35,560 --> 01:18:39,600
I'm without any female who I can
trouble to be intimate with,

942
01:18:39,600 --> 01:18:41,600
and it's a great drawback.

943
01:18:44,800 --> 01:18:48,240
In 1924, the High Commissioner
and most of the senior advisers

944
01:18:48,240 --> 01:18:49,800
went home on leave.

945
01:18:49,800 --> 01:18:53,040
I was left in charge
with Gertrude as my right-hand man.

946
01:18:54,280 --> 01:18:55,680
Before the others returned,

947
01:18:55,680 --> 01:18:59,360
she had a complete breakdown
in health and very nearly died.

948
01:19:01,360 --> 01:19:04,160
However, she did recover
and went home,

949
01:19:04,160 --> 01:19:07,040
but she ought never
to have returned to Iraq.

950
01:19:14,240 --> 01:19:16,160
Darling Molly,

951
01:19:16,160 --> 01:19:19,800
your letter of March 1st
went so dreadfully to my heart.

952
01:19:21,280 --> 01:19:25,240
The leaving of Rounton,
to tear yourself up by the roots,

953
01:19:25,240 --> 01:19:28,320
when it's only the roots
that seem to be left...

954
01:19:28,320 --> 01:19:30,040
it is terrible.

955
01:19:32,080 --> 01:19:35,640
I hate the thought
of the dear house empty.

956
01:19:35,640 --> 01:19:37,960
I feel as if my home were gone.

957
01:19:41,320 --> 01:19:43,440
What I cling to is work,

958
01:19:43,440 --> 01:19:46,320
the ordinary routine
that keeps on going,

959
01:19:46,320 --> 01:19:51,200
and try to feel as happy as I can
without bothering about the future.

960
01:19:56,240 --> 01:20:00,600
So Hugh asked me to help him
put some pressure on Gertrude

961
01:20:00,600 --> 01:20:02,760
to bring her home for a bit.

962
01:20:02,760 --> 01:20:06,120
It put me in rather
an awkward position

963
01:20:06,120 --> 01:20:09,800
because she'd written to me
more than once that

964
01:20:09,800 --> 01:20:14,680
even though she felt she
couldn't risk another hot summer

965
01:20:14,680 --> 01:20:19,440
in Mesopotamia and hoped to get away
to the hills in India,

966
01:20:19,440 --> 01:20:21,640
she would not come home.

967
01:20:31,800 --> 01:20:34,760
Baghdad, June 2nd, 1926.

968
01:20:36,080 --> 01:20:38,360
Dearest Father,

969
01:20:38,360 --> 01:20:42,240
I do understand that you want me
to come home,

970
01:20:42,240 --> 01:20:45,880
but I don't see, for the moment,
what I can do.

971
01:20:45,880 --> 01:20:50,760
You see, I've undertaken this very
grave responsibility of the museum.

972
01:20:52,080 --> 01:20:54,760
I had been protesting,
for more than a year,

973
01:20:54,760 --> 01:20:56,800
that I must have a proper building.

974
01:20:58,640 --> 01:21:01,960
This winter, one finally
fell vacant, and next,

975
01:21:01,960 --> 01:21:03,920
I was held up by the floods.

976
01:21:06,040 --> 01:21:08,040
All the very valuable objects

977
01:21:08,040 --> 01:21:11,000
have been transferred
into the new building,

978
01:21:11,000 --> 01:21:13,600
and no-one but I
knows anything about them.

979
01:21:15,480 --> 01:21:18,920
It isn't merely a responsibility
to the Iraq,

980
01:21:18,920 --> 01:21:21,120
but to archaeology in general.

981
01:21:23,240 --> 01:21:26,720
If I were to leave,
I shall not want to come back here.

982
01:21:28,760 --> 01:21:32,000
But I would like
to finish this job first.

983
01:21:32,000 --> 01:21:34,120
Indeed, I feel I must finish it.

984
01:21:37,720 --> 01:21:41,520
It isn't because I don't
immensely want to see you,

985
01:21:41,520 --> 01:21:45,120
but I know you will understand that

986
01:21:45,120 --> 01:21:50,840
it means I'll find myself
really rather loose on the world.

987
01:21:53,600 --> 01:21:57,520
In spite of all I've said
of my activities in the office...

988
01:21:58,840 --> 01:22:02,040
..you must please remember
that I am not a person.

989
01:22:11,840 --> 01:22:15,120
She told me that black depression
had settled down on her

990
01:22:15,120 --> 01:22:17,040
like some dark cloud.

991
01:22:18,880 --> 01:22:21,360
I don't think she was really
ever happy again.

992
01:22:23,720 --> 01:22:26,640
I think you ought to know
about this,

993
01:22:26,640 --> 01:22:28,880
whether you decide to reveal it
or not.

994
01:22:50,400 --> 01:22:53,760
I was one of those who carried
the coffin to the grave,

995
01:22:53,760 --> 01:22:55,120
and was responsible

996
01:22:55,120 --> 01:22:57,360
for the settlement of her affairs
in Baghdad.

997
01:22:57,360 --> 01:23:01,040
She had a large wardrobe full of
fashionable dresses and clothing.

998
01:23:01,040 --> 01:23:03,560
There are at least 25 pairs
of expensive shoes,

999
01:23:03,560 --> 01:23:05,400
some of which had never been worn.

1000
01:23:07,120 --> 01:23:10,120
I remember remarking, when I left
the little house for the last time,

1001
01:23:10,120 --> 01:23:12,560
that the house would not last
as long

1002
01:23:12,560 --> 01:23:16,760
as the legend of its last occupant,
and that that too was ephemeral.

1003
01:23:20,240 --> 01:23:23,920
I've always been sorry that
my husband and I were in America

1004
01:23:23,920 --> 01:23:25,720
when Gertrude died.

1005
01:23:26,920 --> 01:23:30,320
She was so disillusioned
with King Feisal,

1006
01:23:30,320 --> 01:23:34,600
who was not living up to her
impossibly high ideals for him.

1007
01:23:34,600 --> 01:23:38,840
And she realised
that he no longer needed her.

1008
01:23:40,640 --> 01:23:46,040
I like to believe that I could have
helped her to be more realistic.

1009
01:23:48,680 --> 01:23:51,960
It seems sad to me that
Gertrude wasn't even mentioned

1010
01:23:51,960 --> 01:23:53,640
in a recent book about Iraq.

1011
01:23:55,560 --> 01:23:57,440
Sorry, I don't recall the author.

1012
01:23:58,880 --> 01:24:00,520
Her political work,

1013
01:24:00,520 --> 01:24:03,000
one of the biggest things
a woman has ever had to do,

1014
01:24:03,000 --> 01:24:04,800
was as finished as mine.

1015
01:24:06,720 --> 01:24:09,320
That Iraq state is a fine monument,

1016
01:24:09,320 --> 01:24:11,440
even if it only lasts
a few more years.

1017
01:24:13,440 --> 01:24:16,200
She was born too gifted, perhaps.

1018
01:24:19,040 --> 01:24:21,480
By the way, do read her letters.

1019
01:24:21,480 --> 01:24:23,400
They are splendid.

1020
01:24:42,560 --> 01:24:44,680
I had a nice little ceremony
on Monday

1021
01:24:44,680 --> 01:24:47,160
when the King opened
the first room of the museum.

1022
01:24:48,920 --> 01:24:52,520
It was open to the public
for the first time today.

1023
01:24:52,520 --> 01:24:55,160
I saw some 15 or 20
ordinary Baghdadis

1024
01:24:55,160 --> 01:24:58,240
going around it under the guidance
of an old Arab curator.

1025
01:24:59,600 --> 01:25:03,800
Everyone agrees that it looks like
a real museum,

1026
01:25:03,800 --> 01:25:07,880
rather like the British Museum,
only a little smaller.

1027
01:25:10,960 --> 01:25:14,080
I often wonder
how the old Babylonians,

1028
01:25:14,080 --> 01:25:18,360
with whom I now feel such a close
connection, passed their summer.

1029
01:25:18,360 --> 01:25:23,200
Much as we do, I dare say, but
without our ice and electric fans,

1030
01:25:23,200 --> 01:25:27,040
which add immensely
to the amenities of existence.

1031
01:25:27,040 --> 01:25:28,840
RING

1032
01:25:28,840 --> 01:25:30,360
There's the lunch bell,

1033
01:25:30,360 --> 01:25:32,920
and I'm dreadfully in need
of some iced soda water.

1034
01:25:34,920 --> 01:25:37,960
Your very affectionate daughter,
Gertrude.