Baghdad Dec 23 Darling Father. Well, our shooting party is doomed. Ken is bogged in Kirkuk and they don't think that even the aerodrome will be fit for 3 or 4 days, and it's still raining there and here. Isn't it sickening. It's worse for him, poor dear, to be cooped up there, cold and uncomfortable and with nothing particular to do, I imagine. Iltyd comes back tonight and he and I will have to amuse ourselves somehow. The Sinbads have asked us both to lunch on Xmas day. Yesterday a very interesting thing happened - I went to see the Queen. She's charming, I'm so happy to say. She has the delicate, sensitive Hashimi face (she's his first cousin, you know) and the same winning manner that he has; not pretty, but looking so well bred. She had on a very nice, long tunicked brown gown made by the nuns, and a long long string of pearls, not very big pearls but a beautiful colour, and a splendid aquamarine pendant. I saw the 2 eldest girls who are just like her, rather shy but not at all wooden and eager to be outgoing, one could see. Just think of the life they've all lead, imprisoned in the Mecca [Makkah] palace with a pack of women and slaves! Just to sit on their balcony and see the Tigris flowing by must be wonderful to them. To my amazement when I arrived I was greeted by a large negress who addressed me in perfect English. When I gasped, she informed me that she had come from Cape Town I forget how many tens of years ago but of course she couldn't forget English because it was her Mother tongue. There's a third girl but she is a helpless cripple and can't talk. Sinbad hasn't seen her yet; he thinks she sounds as if she was wrong from her birth, but they say she broke her back when she was a baby. Of other events, there are few; one doesn't do much when it rains so desperately. I had the Tainshes to dinner on Sunday (Col. Tainsh is Rlys and I like them both) with a Mrs Keeling who is staying with them, she brought me an introduction from Domnul and is a nice woman. Mr Cooke and Lionel were the rest of the party, a rather nice one. It was preceded by a long talk with General Brancker, whom I knew before. He was interesting about Angora [Ankara (Ancyra)], said the Turks were feeling horribly isolated and much wanted to be friends with us - for loan purposes, bien entendu. He heard no jingoism about Mosul [Mawsil, Al], far from it. He thinks they are prepared to give in and only want the decision of the League to save their face. He also said that the people at the top really are putting their back into things, but the country is horribly poor. The people have no ploughs, no animals - and then there are so few people. Angora is devastated by virulent malaria - it doesn't seem a good place for a capital. Last week I went to a party at the Military School - Col. Joyce and I were the only English guests; I felt the halo cast by Herbert still about me. It really was rather fun. I sat on one side of Sulaiman Beg (your friend, who was in England - he's now the Director of the School) and Col. Joyce on the other. The dinner was good, Arab food but not too Arab. Afterwards I talked to all the generals and colonels of the General Staff and then the Cadets acted a play composed by themselves. There were about 10 acts, lasting some 3 minutes a piece, with intervals much longer, I can't think why, since there was no scenery at all and all the actors could have had to do between the acts was to learn their parts. They certainly didn't do that. The plot was simple and stirring. A noble Arab boy is seen explaining to his father and his bride that his country called and he must enlist and defend her frontiers. The next act was the recruiting office where he was at once accepted though he gave his age as 12. We then watched him being drilled and followed him to the front where he fell gloriously. But fortunately not finally. He was nursed in hospital by an Arab orderly, recovered in spite of all the efforts of his emotional relations which might have done for anyone, and in the last stood at the end of a squad and was decorated with the Order of Independence amidst immense applause. Even Mother would have followed the story, wouldn't she. What is very interesting is that a lot of shaikhs' sons come in as cadets. They are usually quite illiterate but Sulaiman Beg says they are very quick. They give them a special course and don't pass them straight out as officers. Next year more are coming - it's a thing that was unheard of in Turkish times, that they should come of their own accord. 'Abdul Hamid brought some up to C'ple [Istanbul (Constantinople)] to a special Shaikh's School to make them good little Turks. But it didn't succeed; those I know came back more Arabs than before. I had a long talk yesterday with one Peterson who is the assistant foreign correspondent of the Times. He had come from Egypt and gave a very gloomy account of the situation which is quite artificial. He doesn't know what will happen. We can't go on patrolling the streets of Cairo daily with the British army. He says Allenby's reputation is immense. It was he, between ourselves, who practically drafted the ultimatum, all but the Nile water clause, which Mr Peterson said was a mistake. (Sir Henry spotted that at once.) It looks like a petty sort of revenge and it's no good explaining it away by saying (though I believe it is true) that Egypt will not be affected. Everyone says that it is "punishment" and therefore must damage Egypt. He says that Palestine and Syria are up in arms on the Egyptian side and that they are now looking on Egypt as the premier Moslem state, replacing the Turks. There has not been any reaction of that sort here yet, but I have no doubt it will ultimately come. Will you tell Geoffrey Dawson next time you [see] him that it was a great pleasure to meet Mr Peterson whom I thought singularly level and unprejudiced. I've no doubt you will see some articles from him in the Times. They will be worth reading. But oh dear! isn't it a difficult world. There darling. I'm going to post this letter tomorrow but whether the overland mail will get off I can't say. I've a growing conviction, Father, that I shall not come on leave next year. Don't be disappointed. Your very loving daughter Gertrude. Dec 24. [24 December 1924] It's fine at last. We hope Ken and the King will get back tomorrow and that we shall go for our shoot on Friday.