Gertrude Bell

thumb|Gertrude Bell Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist. Quotes Why, yes, of course I wrote all the Arab of Mesopotamia. I've loved the reviews which speak of the practical men who were the anonymous authors, etc. It's fun being practical men, isn't it. In a letter from August 30th, 1918, in: Lady Florence Bell w:Florence Bell (writer) 1927 The Letters of Getrude Bell 2 Boni and Liveright In conclusion I may mention that there is a gathering cloud in the north. The Turks are assembling troops in Van and have sent fresh officers and promised reinforcements at Rawanduz. An exceedingly lively propaganda is being conducted among the Kurdish tribes and our General Staff regards the situation as grave. Meantime in Sulaimani [Sulaymaniyah, As] we have not yet caught the murderers of Capt Bond and Capt Makant who are in close touch with the Turks at Rawanduz. The RAF has done wonders bombing insurgent villages in extremely difficult country, but it takes them all their time to keep a sufficient number of machines in the air and now if we are called upon to bomb Rawanduz intensively, our resources will be strained to the utmost. Our Kurdish policy needs revision, as you will see from the enclosed Memo (strictly confidential) which I have submitted to H.E. But we cannot hope for any permanent settlement till we have peace with the Kamalists - if ever. In a letter to her father Sir Hugh Bell, dated 6 July 1922.No-Intervention, global policy forumLetter from Gertrude Bell to her father, Sir Hugh Bell, Newcastle University, Gertrude Bell Project Dearest Father. We continue to battle with very difficult seas. So far we are weathering them but one can never feel sure that the next wave won't swamp us. [...] First of all, as you've heard, the tribal attack engineered by the Kamalists - mostly among scalliwag Kurds over the Persian border - forced us to relinquish the Rania corner of the Sulaimani Division; it's no great loss, a wild and turbulent district which at the best of times doesn't pay its own expenses, but retreat before insurgent tribes is always a dangerous venture for you can never tell where it will end. Also we have abandoned to his fate - and don't yet know what it will be - a stalwart ally, Babakr Agha of the Pizhder, who from first to last has stood by us without faltering. This is the kind of thing which one feels as a personal dishonour. Next came the withdrawal of all our personnel from Sulaimani. It was impossible to tell how far the tribal rot would go and inexcusable to risk lives which we had no means of protecting. [...] So we handed over the Kurdish elective Council, which was extablished a year ago, placing in charge a certain Shaikh Qadir, a member of the leading local family and evacuated some 60 persons, British officers, Persian clerks and Assyrian Levies, by air. For years of excellent and devoted work, a province rescued from chaos and set fairly in the path of peaceful development all thrown away as a result of insensate Kamalist propaganda acting on savage mountaineers over the frontier. And why? the answer is clear. Because ever since the armistice we have so desperately mishandled the Turkish question. Every one of us who knew Turkey knew that the Treaty of Sevres was wicked and impossible nonsense, and not one of us could get a hearing. In a letter to her father, Sir Hugh Bell, dated 8 September 1922.Letter from Gertrude Bell to her father, Sir Hugh Bell, Newcastle University, archived version. References External links Category:Historians from England Category:Archaeologists from England Category:Non-fiction authors from England Category:Women authors from England Category:Geographers from England Category:Travel writers Category:Explorers from England Category:Climbers Category:Victorian writers Category:Spies Category:University of Oxford alumni Category:1868 births Category:1926 deaths Category:Women born in the 19th century Category:Women scientists from England