The Foreign Service Journal, January 2005

responsible for Mesopotamia, and Bell first met Sir Percy Cox, who was to become High Commissioner for Mesopotamia after the First World War, on a visit to India in 1902. By the time Cox arrived in Baghdad after the Turkish defeat in 1917, she had been in and out of the region many times, and he soon realized how invaluable her experi- ence and local connections would be in carrying out the British mandate that would result from the Paris Peace Treaty. She seemed to be everywhere — in the British intelligence office in Cairo before her four-month jour- ney by camel caravan into north- central Arabia in 1914; at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, where she met Prince Faisal of Mecca, the leader of the Arabian revolt against the Turks during the war. Faisal, with whom the British government (through Lawrence), had made a bargain, was promised a crown, though not the one he ultimately got. And in early 1921 she was at the Cairo Conference led by Winston Churchill, then colonial secretary, where it was decided that Iraq was to be self-governing because it was too expensive to support as a protec- torate. There, resplendent in furs and a big hat, she posed with Cox, Lawrence, the Churchills and other dignitaries while seated on camels lined up before the Sphinx at the pyramids. The Ultimate in “Wild Travel” For some of us, perhaps, most fascinating are her own descriptions of the “wild travel” that added zest to her life. Her Arabian Diaries , written in 1913-14 for Dick Doughty-Wylie (with whom she was hopelessly in love), contains some of her most lyrical descriptions of liv- ing in the desert. One morning she woke as the sun rose, and wrote that it was like being “inside an opal.” And she describes in some detail the four months she traveled with her own camel caravan from Jerusalem south, and then east through Arabia, traversing territory claimed by both the Shammar tribe and their blood enemies, the Sauds. She was by then formally charged by the British government with gathering informa- 48 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 5 She was the scourge of the Foreign Office wives, whom she perceived as empty-headed. You know that intimate, boutique all-suite hotel that everyone wants to find? The one that has cutting-edge style and service, but is still reasonably priced? You just found it! • Located minutes from State Department Headquarters • Government per diem accepted all year • Newly Renovated suites with full kitchens • Visit our new restaurant “Dish” For more information please visit www.theriverinn.com or call (202) 337-7600. L OTS OF S TYLE , N OT A LOT OF P R I CE 9 2 4 2 5 T H S T R E E T , NW W A S H I N G T O N , DC 2 0 0 3 7