Dec. 27 'The recognition of the independence of Iraq, announced last week, is a splendid historical acknowledgement of joint British and Arab achievements, for the making of Iraq and' the placing on its throne of King Feisul was as much the work of an exceptionally capable and byiMiant group of British civil servants and military men as it due te the enthusiasm and sturdiness of the Arab sheiks and the fine qualities of the Sheriff's son, Iraq, after a very short period, ceases to be a mandated state and becomes completely sovereign and in alliance with Great Britain, which has also promised, by treaty, to assist Iraq to obtain a seat in the League of Nations in 1982, The story of Iraq is one vf the most romantic and fascinating in the history of modern times. The bringing together of the tribes of the Arabian desert and Syria, their organization into a fighting force, their services to Allenby and finally the establishment in Bagdad of a semi-independent Arabian kingdom under a son of the Sheriff of Mecca is indeed a tale such as one does mot expect to read in this rather drab and materialistic twentieth century. Two Britons play a part in this drama which will never be forgotten by the Arabs, The archiological researches and the intelligence work of Miss Gertude Bell and the military genuine of Col. 'T. E, Lawrence Inid the the foundations for the Arab state, Miss Bell went to the Bust as any linguist and archwologist might, but she achieved something very much greater than the mere finding of ancient stones: she won for herself a place in the hearts of these men of the desert which no foreigner had ever known, and when the war came and she wan assigned te staff work in Egypt, India, and finally in Bagdad, she' became the guide and inspiration of these elements among the Arabs who were labouring to achieve a modern state. King Feisul listened to her advice as though she were of his family, and when there were disagreements ind discouragements, the men and the young came to her house and found inspiration and comfort there. Few modern women have played such an heroic rie; yet Miss Bell was a woman of rare modesty and calmness. She never regarded herself as more than an Oriental secretary, a servant of her gov ernment. When she died in harness in Bagdad, King Feisul ordered that a wing of the Iraq Museum, for which she had done ssu much, should be named after her, and-a striking tablet was placed upon the wall upon which is inscribed the king's appreciation of her services to his country.
Mr. 'T. E. Lawrence was not very different from Miss Ger-trode Bell: He also was a Ainguist and an_archevlogist, 4nd they had once met in. the Mesert before the War. Retiring to a degree of shyness, he found himself during the War editing. an Arab newspaper in —the war over—he fought at Paris against the diplomats and the Eurdpean politicians for a free Mesopotamia, and having determined that promises made had not been kept, he retires from public life. 'A nation wa: ready to bestow every glory upon the man, and the King of Iraq sought to reward him for the invaluable services he had rendered his country, but Law-vance disappeared from the world and only recently he has again been discovered, this time serving in the Royal Air Force in India as a corporal under an assumed name, Shaw. He had grown weary of adulation and the applause of the world, and had run off where he was not known and where he could perhaps maintain his individuality. Lawrence could do a great work in the desert; he could not be a great man in the cities of civi-
There were other Britons who laboured for Iraq, and there are, of course, the thousands of Arabs who are serving their country, but there has never been any servile selfishness, any intriguing, any sacrificing of the country even te British interests, And that is perhaps the secret of Iraq's success in 80 short a time, As one compare: the story of Iraq with that of China, one finds so many advantages that China had ver the Arabs; yet, they have reached their go: wale China is still unfortun cing the intrigues of petty" politics. The essential difference is that the Arabs faced the problems of founding a modern state as a proposition of work and they settled down to work in an incredibly short time. Miss Bell, in her letters, describes these first days of Iraq's growing pains. There was the need of reconciling the old and the new; there was the difficult problem of the numerous blood feuds among various tribes; there were the wastes of the desert which make the country poor; there was the disbelief of many men, Arabs, British, and others, that anything could be accomplished. And there was the small group of Arabs and Britons, who stood with Feisul to work from the ground up. Work! That was the word they knew.
The British might have slaved Iraq politically. They might have done as the Russians have in China, kept the various tribes at sword's points quarrelling over inessentials and slogans. But that is not the character of the British civil servant. He was sent out to help these people to organize a state and he did that and nothing more. In Bliss Bell's letters and in Lawrence's book, une sees these young men come out to this romantic but at moments uncomfortable country, dig into their jubs, and put the work through. And under them were always training Arabs, prepared to take their places when the various tasks had been put on a working basis. And today Iraq is sovereign and Iraq is grateful. Few states in Asia, surely few of those carved out of the cld Turkish conglomeration, have achieved as much, but that is undoubtedly because the others have not been quite as ready as the Arabs to go tu work, to build from the bottom, to fol-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.