ENGLISH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17157, 6 October 1926, Page 12

ENGLISH

WON OVER BEDOUIN TRIBES. DEATH OF GERTRUDE BELL. LONDON, Aug. 14. Gertrude Bell, “the mystery woman’’ ot the Near East, who lias just, died suddenly at the zenith of her career in the colonial service, had a claim to distinction which is without parallel among Englishwomen. She held the executive rank of a colonel, which was granted to her when she was transferred to the staff iu Iraq after serving during 1917 on the intelligence staff at G.H.Q. in Egypt. Ordnance survey maps of outlying portions of Messopotamia have the name “Bell” marked on them. This is an indication that Miss Gertrude Bell had personally verified their details—-a tribute indeed to her knowledge of tlie. desert. Of late much has been written about Gertrude Bell’s part in the complicated drama of international affairs in Syria, Arabia, and Mesopotamia since the World War. She has been called the Uncrowned Queen of Mesopotamia, the Mystery Woman of the Near East, the Egeria of the Arab Emir Feisal, by correspondents who, perforce, were compelled to romance a bit about a woman who, occupying such a position, never granted a formal interview. Although her work had been known to scholars, archaeologists, and probably to the British Foreign Office for many years, it was only during the war that jMiss Bell, like Colonel Lawrence, became really a public figure. At the beginning of the war she had recently emerged from the heart of the Arabian Desert—a trip that won her the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and the Government at once sought her aid and advice in matters affecting British interests in the Middle East. In 1915 she was enrolled in the Intelligence Division of the British Army in Egypt under Sir Gilbert Clayton, with tlie official rank of captain. Her appointment was due to the fact that, like Lawrence, she, had spent many years travelling in Syria and Arabia, and was thoroughly familiar with the dialects, manners, customs and geography of most of the territory comprised in the old Ottoman Empire. The daughter of Sir Hugh Bell, owner of huge foundries in Lancashire, and one of the richest baronets in England, Gertrude Bell could have done pretty much anything she liked, but n|ter graduating ul St. Margaret's College, Oxford, with the; highest honors, she choose a career that few women and even few men could have followed. Unconsciously, for she. was not a feministin any sense of the word, she did the job for which she was fitted. It happened to be the job of a rather “super” man. After a year in Egypt, Gertrude Bell was sent as political oiiieer to join General Maude’s expeditionary forces in Mesopotamia, where from 1916 until the armistice she followed one of the most exciting professions in all the world. Sometimes she took journeys into the desert to ascertain the temper of, or to win over to the British cause, some of the. hostile Bedouin tribes. Sometimes she ventured even further .afield, well within the Turkish lines, dressed as a native woman, to bring hack military and*, political information. Frequently she was sent to secure the active co-operation of the Bedouin sheiks in the campaign against the Turks and Germans. Unce she was despatched to interview and win over the sheik of a particularly refractory tribe of Arabs in the Jeve-Shammar region. The sheik and his followers received her none too cordially. Nothing daunted, however, Miss Bell stated her case, adroitly hinting at the advantage that might come from an alliance with England, and ending with just the touch of defiance and bravado the Arab admires above all things. During her speech the sheik was visibly impressed, and when she had finished he sat silent for a few moments. Then he addressed his followers somewhat as follows : “My brothers, you have heard wind this women has to say to us. She is only a woman, but Y’Allah she is a mighty and valiant one. Now know that God has made all women inferior to men. If the women of tlie Angle/, are like her, the men must he like lions in strength and valor. We had bet-ler make peace with them.” ADVISER.TO THE IRAQ ADMINISTRATION. No ono will ever know, because .she never spoke of such tilings except lo make light, of them, what dangers, what hairbreadth escapes and what terrifying experiences Gertrude Bell went through while she was engaged in this work. She not only had the enmity and possible treachery of many of the Arab tribes to contend with, but also the spies and agents of the Turks mml Germans. Much of what happened later was foreshadowed or predicted in her two books on the Middle East, “The Desert and the Sown,” published in 1907, and “Amui'uth to Amuratli,” which appeared in 1911. ‘ These two volumes contained such accurate and detailed descriptions of the peoples, places, routes by land and water, and such valuable data about Mesopotamia, Syria and Asia Minor that they were used by army officers during the active campaign of the Middle East as a source of information. Thus Gertrude Bell at the beginning of the World War was alive to the dangers of the situation in the Middle East. Being a curious mixture of imperialist and internationalist, she became a sympathiser (though more guarded and cautious in this regard than Lawrence) with tlie aims of the Arab Nationalist leaders, of whom the Emir Feisal, son of the Sherif of Mecca, was the leader. After the armistice she remained in Bagdad as a member of the Arab Buleaii and adviser to the provisional administration. Later, in 1920, when Great Britain formally took over a mandate from the League of Nations for • Mesopotamia and proceeded to make it into a small kingdom under the name of Iraq, she was appointed Oriental secretary to Sir Percy Cox, the first high commissioner, and more recently served in the, same capacity under Sir Henry Dobbs, his successor.