The Foreign Service Journal, January 2005

advice that she escape the dreaded heat of Baghdad summers. She wrote to her father in 1922 that it is “shocking how the East has wound itself around my heart till I don’t know which is me and which is it. ... I’m more a citizen of Bagdad [sic] than many a Bagdadi born, and I’ll wager that no Bagdadi cares more, or half so much, for the beauty of the river or the palm gardens, or clings more closely to the rights of citizen- ship which I have acquired.” Final Years Within a year or two after the coronation, she realized she needed something else to do and began to plan and build “her” museum, the Iraqi National Museum which she would then help stock from the accumulated artifacts from such fabled sites as Babylon, Nineveh and Ur. In a droll passage, Wallach describes Bell visiting Ur, where the British archaeologist Leonard Wool- ley was at work, and bribing the local digging team. Bell offered them bakshish (gifts) to produce treasures, which slowly emerged from pockets and other hiding places and which she then packed off back to Baghdad for her museum. The writer Vita Sackville-West stayed with Bell in Baghdad in 1926 just a few months before Bell’s death. En route to visit her diplomat hus- band Harold Nicolson in Tehran, Sackville-West describes in her book Passenger to Tehran , published the same year, arriving inside Bell’s walled garden ill and exhausted after a jour- ney by land and sea from India. She found Bell’s pony hitched in a corner, a couple of dogs, a tame partridge, and the servants’ small children among the shrubs and flowers. Taken in hand by Bell before she dashed off to her office, and between making phone calls and chatting about who was coming to lunch, Sackville-West was provided breakfast and a bath in what she describes as a tin saucer. Responding to her request for a saluki dog, Bell made a phone call before she left. A short time later Sackville-West was confronted with 52 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 Sackville-West writes, “I watched them both — the Arab prince and the Englishwoman who were trying to build up a new Mesopotamia between them.” Get Your Finances In Line With SDFCU Online You can depend on State Department Federal Credit Union for the ultimate in security and convenience with SDFCU Online banking. This FREE service allows you to access your Credit Union accounts via the Internet anytime, from anywhere in the world. Just go to www.sdfcu.org and click the SDFCU Online logo. You can conduct the following Credit Union business: Transfer funds between accounts Check current account balances View your account history over the last 15 months View check images View and pay your credit card bill online Pay Bills and much more!* See just how easy SDFCU Online is! Visit us at www.sdfcuonline.org and check out the easy demo! If you’re interested in becoming a member of State Department Federal Credit Union, give our Member Service Center a call at 703- 706-5000 , or outside the D.C. Metro area at 800-296-8882 . You can also email us at sdfcu@sdfcu.org . SDFCU Online puts us at your service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whenever you need us the most. Sign up today! *The Bill Payer service is available at no charge for Capital Club members. Otherwise, there is a low monthly fee of $3.95 for unlimited transactions.