LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
MISS GERTRUDE BELL [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Many obituary notices have appeared of the late Miss Gertrude Bell, but a few impressions, based upon a pretty close acquaintance with her work during the last few years, may be of some interest to your readers.
In the words used by Mr. Amery in the House of Commons, Miss Bell's premature death has deprived the country not only of a most valuable public servant, but also of" a remarkable and indeed unique personality." It was something of a shock to read in the Times that Miss Bell took her final school at Oxford as long ago as 1887. She carried her years lightly. Her slim and graceful figure, her abundant physical energy and her tireless intellectual activity alike forbade all thought of advancing age. Such a woman could never grow old.
The position which she held in Iraq, and which she had built up for herself, was certainly unique. She was indeed a standing contradiction of preconceived theory. A Mohammedan population, much of it steeped in the ignorance and prejudice of ages ; a country just emerged from the convulsions of war ; an administrative system—the only one that the land had known for centuries—shattered to fragments : such was the strange setting in which a cultured, twentieth-century English woman was to play a leading role with conspicuous success. What was the secret ? She possessed many eminent gifts : a quick brain, a ready tongue, and a fluent pen. But these alone would not have sufficed. There was something that went deeper, the intangible quality that attracts confidence in others.
Miss Bell's early travels had given her a strong sympathy with the Arab race and a firm belief in its future. People with a pet nationality do not always preserve their sense of proportion ; but Miss Bell's enthusiasms were never divorced from common sense. She did not minimize the difficulties or try for the impossible. But she believed that there was a future for the Arabs, and that Great Britain had a worthy part to play in helping them to achieve it. The policy, in- augurated in 1921, of setting up an independent Arab King- dom in Iraq had her warm support. To its furtherance she devoted herself, during the last five years of her life, with unremitting zeal and with a faith in ultimate success that had a more than local influence. The new King of Iraq was an old friend of hers, and she retained his confidence to the end. The friendship between them was a political asset of un- doubted value.
The youthful Iraq State has had its full share of the troubles of nonage. It has survived them all. The last and most formidable disappeared when the problem of Mosul was settled by agreement with the Turks. That happy event occurred only a few weeks before Miss Bell's death. We may rejoice that she lived long enough to witness so notable a triumph for the cause which she had done so much to promote.
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