THE RIOT
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The Riot. 6
At the time of the riot in Baghdad I was working at
one of the colleges as a teacher. It was-called the Queen
Aliyah College, and was for girls only. Opposite, behind an
uneven wall, thè brickwork of its face exposed and rough like a
that 1 some mediaeval buildings one-sees in Europe, was' the chief
men's college, called. Thé College of Arts and Sciences. And at.
the end of the road, was one of the gatès of the city, a wide -
squàre where thé buses stopped, with palm trees and a dusty road-
and
surface, with a kind of platform in the middle where criminals
and sometimes political prisoners were. hung. early in the morning,
and left there hanging for three hours. A friend,of mine; a
surgeon at the looal hospital, used to try to persuade me to eome
along to these hangings; he said they fascinated him, rather as
surgery did. But.I st ayed away, probably because of a fear that.
tha. Same
I might find arsimilar fascination in myself. I never saw.my
friend perform an operation---that was another thing he invited me
to ànd I managed to stay away from---but people told me that he
warked with a tremendous concentration, bending low over his pat-
ient, with thé sweat pouring out, of his brow even on cold days.
Nearly every_year there was a riot of some kind among the
students, in the cold weather, before or after Christmas; some-
times the riot was mild and sometimes. violent.
The most violent mnc
had been just after the signing of a treaty with Britain, wheh
Earnest Bevin was foreign eecretary.. Sinde then they had been
fairly quiet. * But it was. said that the
and thus . the.
city,
country, couldn't go on for long in this state; there were too
many communists, too many: Russian agents living in the tall,
squalid blocks of flats near the gate on the other side of- the


city, where some of the better-class brothels were. Students
in the- College of Arts.and Sciences used to read Lenin and. Marx
under the lids of their desks rather as if these were pornographic.
There was. a steadily growing class.of dissatisfied professional
people who wouldn't tolerate Irag's conneotion with. England much
longer; the: treaty, was. represented as an act of slavery, only a
voluntary treaty on the surface; the, ministers. were. looked on as
lackies of the British. Embassy, and much odium surrounded the
person of the Prince Régent Abdullilah, who was latér murdered;
he was said to_have his finger in every big commercial deal in x"
the city, espécially the crooked dealy and to have amassed an
immense fortune by corrppt bargains with the government over pro-
perty and building contracts. There were also. too many poor
people. But.they didn't complain. It was the st udents and the
professional peoplé who resented and smouldered. They hated the
Bont
fat, illiterate ministers and under-secretaries who might' keep
them waiting in an ante-roomsfor-two-or-three:h hours. The son of
the prime minister was. also hated. - It was said of him that he
drank a bottle of whisky a dày, and-was one-of the lowest rakes
in the country. of all the things. that wére said about.the
people in charge it was difficult to know What was true. When
later-these people. weré murdered, their bodies dragged through the
: streets, it no longer mâttered. what the truth was; the only
important fact. was that the anger had been allowed to accumulate
too long, and nothing could.stop it.,
During this riot, which wasn't. a particularly bad one,
I realised that I was looked on; hated and admired simultaneously,
atale
as an' Englishman, not simply. a friendly teacher from a foreign
land as I thought I was. It was my first experience of being
1ooked at with political hatred, namély, a.hatred that is blazing


and. fierce, quite without mercy, yet in. . thè strangest way with-
out. anything pérsonal. in it.: My. own students, especially the
ones who were close. to.me, in my -sppcial literature class, and
who wéreusually the friendlièst : to me, were those who now.looked
at me most venomously; thé girl who had the reputation of being
my favourite studènt, and who. against all prededent_had.come to
my hotel-room in my first. term at the.college and asked me all
sorts.of questions: about existentialism and Byron andlife' in
London and Paris, andsoforth, cemeup to me and hissed an
insult in 'my face, The other students took little notice of me-
I meàn thosé who névèr took the literature-olasses'and were matnly
under other teachers. r Theyiseemed blind to me;. their eyes looke d
vaguely past me when they turned in my direction, silvery, staring,
with.a damped fiame, smoky.. It was a miscaleulation on my. part
to be. in the college * at. allon the morning of. a,riote Usually
the day' of rioting was known beforehand; after all, there had to
be some. plan; and the xtttnctux'friendly' teachers, those who
weren't. identified with'the government 0f the British Embassy,
were nearly always warnéd. But.this time there was:"no warning.
Even the teacher who. was. famous' for his Arab nationalism didn't
know. Afterwards I was.toid that this'riot was the-most
spontan-
eous there had been so fer; there réally had been no plan.
It. started during one of the dlasses. I realised what W as up
the moment"I heard shouting outsidé, like a wail, because this was
the week in which rioting was expected more or less. I was sitting
in my favourite .classroom, where only six students came,. the most
advanced ones; : it looked out on aquiet quadrangle iwhere the sun
blazed down, making the walls iook like solid mud, encrusted,
dazzling, with the sky just visible beyond them. I've always b een
fascinated by low buildings, of the kind one sees in mediaeval


towns, long. with deép roofs, and this quadrangle. had something
of the'same kindi The air-was nearly always dusty.and parcheds
And: some of the loveliest déys were in: the autumn, when the cold
was coming; the: air was extraordinarily clear, and the yellow.
walls gleamed. in a blinding way, making people narrow:their eyes,
so that women in the. veil,, showing only their eyes through a slit,
seemed to be giving out two Sharp points of light, fixed in the .
black of their- cloth, fièry and. bright, yet closed in darkness as
well.
I think I was going through 'The Rape. of the Lock* line by.
'line, or perhaps it was the first act of Hamlet. : Almost: every
phrase would have to.be. explained. I- enjoyed these. lessons'
thoroughly. -Sometimes the room would seem to:be filled with thè
nymphs and sylphs Pope was describing; the poetry would actually
touch and enchant the room, nearly every morning, so that it was
a part of the extraordinerily clear, yellow light that blazed out-
side and of the books. we were réading, from, part of their print
and texture; and sometimes it: would be a more mysterious
light,
when we went through Hamlet, more stark, less decorated with this
dazzling brightness, less délicate and glittering; there would be
more sombreness, but also the room would séem iess immediate to
us, we.would be moré taken up in the words, it was' more: mental,
but at the same time thère was the special. relish these words creat-
ed, a dramatic rélish, enacting even in their sounds the splendid,
sad, endless.: struggles that' lay perman ently in the fibres of life,
underneath. I enjoyed acting.the lines, and sométime S clowned
about, but this produced an atmosphere of over-excitement.
Nowo.
I The*girls camé to the college in' their abbas; lor at-le-ast most
inp
of them did. These. were black cloaks that'stretehed' over their
heads like a hood, made of silk, which they could draw up to their


eye's so that they. were completelyhidden, except.for'a, slitat
the
old -
brow. Only thé -pARE women of Baghdad, and then.usually.of
the
poor classes, wore the veil 'proper; a piece of black cloth that.
stretchéd across the face just above thé nose. The. educated class-
es had dispensed with it on.the.wholé, and. women covered their facees.
at will, if they went out,into"the streets at all. - Not, all the :
girls Wore the cloak, even those from the traditional femilies;
the Christian Arabs and the Assyrians: : nevér.did; but came in ordin-
ary western clothes. The head of the college was a Turkish woman, :
a spinster; and her'assistant'a Cânadian marrièd. to oné of the govern-
ment-ministers, who was' Iater imprisoned forsome years by. thé revol-,
utionary government. The: result-was' a slight element. of sugfrage tt-
ism in the'college, * though of course it made poor. weather agadnst its'
total opposite outsideptic gallss Whèn the girls took off their
4 abbas and put them on hooks in,the en trance hall.they revealed:
wéstèrn clothes underneath---high-heeled shoes, tight jumpers, little
trinkets -and -
clasps; :
and most * of them wore 1ipstick, 4 a I remember
one clasp, Worn by Miss Existentialist on her jumper, which wasa
miniature representation -of; a. teléphone, cream-ooloured; its wire
in the form of a little. golden.chain.
Not all the students were youhg.girls. There was a woman of
thirty-five or so who had. lost her husband.'same years before, and
was: said to write poetry; she chain-smoked and sat quite still in
a hunched way, broodingly, her. great black eyebrows seeming to
wedgh. down -on her eyes and almost close them, in sléep, while her.
lips smiled slightly.. She had the charactér. of someone refhective
and gifted: sometimes she was quick and fluent, and sometimes
totaliy dull, unable. to suggest anything, only smoke: endlessly,
wrapped in her strangé, silent darkness. One of the
unexpected
things in the college was that smoking was allowed, even in the


examination roome There was:also another woman of the.chain-smoker's
ege, her closest friend; with a. long, dark, rathèr beautiful face;
something - seemed to -hold her.back" all the: time, in
some-
the flesh,
thing ancient perhaps; from the past; a kind-of dragging, slow-footed
quality that stopped her: mindfrom lighting up and only gave her dim
and héavy thoughts,, borne slowly out of. a. broodings insensate" concent-
- ration, SO: that everything in her seemed soft and arowsy, in a desert
heat, evên her voice; which came out unwillingly, strained and deep;
her slowness wasn*t11ke that: of her friend---it had nothing reflect-
ivé in it; wand she hed the same kind of smile, but it was girlish
and inconsequential, not : sad. as her friend's wass. yet they both had :
sométhing ancient in them that. pulled them back in different ways,
and made this ayick wèstern or Christian learning difficult for them,
while fascinating. The beautiful oné took me-aside one day and -
asked me: if I could accept: a.gift of a néw fountain pen from her---
she had "heard that I(a lost mihe.. Iv was delighted and took it with-
out thinking. - Later in the day the other teachers told me I shouldn't
have done,this; it meant thiat -she wanted a.good mark in the exam-
- . inations, which: were just coming. round at. the time. I refused to
believe it, but when I failed. her later on she looked at me in a
completetly disgusted and dishonoured ways.and told.me, she Wb uld
.net ver have though tCapable of such a thing; her look, made me feel :
completely treacherous. Hér work was childish, with a slow, dim
understanding; there wasisomething lovély in it, but. the sentences
didntt finish; and thére were strange misconceptions. Therchain-
smokér aiso was sad at. her friend being failed; theré was a: brood-
ing, end-of-the-world feeling round them both.: It was a world I
could glimpse into; for a moment a Perhaps the at mosphère was,a
little like a harem, especially. when the classroom door was: clbsed
end the girls were quite"thenselves. They were in no doubt---


except one, a pale, slim,"gentle girl whose answers were, always
tothe point, and whose brother was a. teacher at another- college--
that I marked thé examination paparex according to the 1iking. I
had for each of them. It séemèd quite natural to, then that the
girl whose brother was. a fellow-teacher of mine. should : co me: out
top, and that Miss Existentialist should comerseçonds
The noisiest part of:the morning was the_break, when, the
long recreation-room was filled with girls ,- and a bar: at on'e. end
servéd lemon-tea and Turkish coffee in. glasses : At. first I used
togo there every day,. but it always meant béing drawn into one
of the: talkative 1ittle_groups and then., Iater, being reproached
for having shown some. students more attention. than others. By
the end of the firstterm I' was having tea on_my own, in a little
room reserved for the clerks and the bursar of the college, ot I
would go over to. thé ments college opposite where there was a
proper teacherst - common room. But the recreation-room was the
most pleasant: it héd cheerful frescoes on the walls and little
. tables for four people; and setteès along- one wall; - it had all
been arranged by the. dean, a small talkative and charming woman
whose head was fullof once-fashionable clichés from western
Europe; Paris was, the place for her, and, her room was full.of
the: latest Parisian. magazines, the fashion: ones and the .
artistic
avantgarde. oné S. She would tell.the girls all, ab out the 'artists'
that one' saw in the streets of the Latin Guatter, and Montmartre,
and. she spoke French. with a. wonderful fluency.
After the first. yelling.started outside,, the head of the
college, a pale, quiet, sad-faced Toman, came round to each-class-
room and told ' the girls quietly that - they -must keep their places
liho took
and that anyone taking part in what was going on outside would.be


punished. She said this with.narromed, sl
ighthy.fluttering
eyes, her lips' pursed, but clearly she felt apprehensive. . Her -
hand was shaking à littie as she closed the,door again; Some. of y
the yells. outssde were rather blood-ourdling, and the girls got.
up. from their places one'by one,; taking no-notidé -of mè. Thére
was. a bustle in the - entrance hall outside.
the
It as clearly
time for, rumours'to start. flying o : It happened to be nearly break-
time, end peoplé drifted into the recreation-room. As yet there -
seemed to: be no violencè outside. The assistant-head, thé Canadian a
woman, told me it would be better to stay in the coliege, as she:
hurried past, -Theré wesn tt: another. teacher-to-be.séen. Even the
bursar wasn't in his littlé. office, nor the clerks. It was a
bright,: clear day, and the sun streamed through the tall windows.
- There was- no one serving' tea. I-looked for the woman of fashion-
able clichés, but she'wasntt to' be found either. Even thé head of
the'college had-diseppearede - There werè only. students:and me e
I began to hope that they liked me---all.of them..
The yelling. outside increased, and then there was the sound of
smashing, glass.. I went.out into the narrow. quadrangle that gave
onto the street, and saw that most. of' the istudents of the college
opposite vere collected on the roof and were dropping sizeable
boulders down, to prevent anyone coming. into their college.
ing
The police. were coliected' in the road, which, was otherwise quité: -
desérted.as I had never seen it before. The students were aling-
: ing small stones and pebbles. down at them,. and : the, police were
moving ab out. dexterously, finding little areas of, shelter, crouching
down,: their rifles cocked and.ready, though. anhost certainly they
had. orders not to fire. To: one
official
side, standing. by. an,
car,
officer
a there was a police-2furer directing matters: There wasn*t another
vehicle: to be seen. The usual beggars and mulés and donkeys,


ibe
and/siun-bleached, oreaking carts, and.old cloaked women, soft-
-of foot, eliaing"ewiftly along. the' pavemen ts, (to which they. always
seemed to beiong-80 little, were no longer there. I noticed that
alig
there were/girls as welilon the roof opposite; they were waving:
if :
down to our girls, who, seemed to be.taking the situation in: a
giggly
way e - But then the stones gtarted :
flying. dangeroubly---they must
ele
have spent hours -collecting this, armament-ytogether on the roof,
behind thé low promontory. It seemed that the,police were trying
: mine
to forde an entry into the college perhaps to clear. the place. with
te ar-gas, and as they, got. nearer the building, from a flank, the
boulders; and.. stones begans to fall 'more thickly, making dull thuds
on the sandy.earth below, One of the windows of our college was
suddenly smashed, and everyone. ran inside'. The police pushed the
remainder ofthe girls back,. ànd the-doors of the college. were then.
made fast.. I decided togo rand.sit in' the recreation-room, a d
+3 to look as_uncacerned as possiblé, though'I was. vèry frightened,
and. could see myself being strung up.on apole and"having my limbs
out off slowly andone by one, Fending with the genitals; while the
girls: danced a frightfui kind of feminine death-dande round me.
Itold myself that
had good. training during the war for benaving
Buy L
calmlyb while. in a state: of pure- funk in'side, a and I composed myself-
on my ohair and began to: readf the]book I'd brought from the. class-
roomy or rather, i tried to.
bo hid
Still none. .of: the girls took any notice of mé., / This felt to
mé like: the negligence xof, peoplé who had. absolute power in thei r
hands; a. judge might be n égtigent like that before putting the
black cap- on his head. But suddenly one of the outside doors
burst open with a terrifio force, and. I thought, Here goest
There,11: be a real'fight now :' Apparently, the police. hadn't been'
strong. enough torstop thé riot spreading into the street. But I


was mistaken. It was only- one. young. man. o However, there was
blood running down his face, togethèr with sweat,and he was yelling:
frantically. He dashe'd straight into the recreation-room---to get
me, I thought---Tollomed by several of the giris, and began yelling
in the most distressed way, his eyes quite blind, olearly seeing
nothing round him-at aii, even/me, trembling all over, his shirt in
rags, while the: girls gazed at him with. rapt sympathy. It seemed
he wa's making a. sort of speech. His éyes passed over-me while he
talked, settled on mé, passed on again, pierced through me, 9 while.
- the words poured out of his mouth. I began to ask myself where all
my Arab. friends were. Surely they would realise I was in a fix?
But they were all fàr afield." One was. in the hospi tal on the
other side of the square; another ran a bookshop, enother was in
the ministry of justice, another at the racecourse outside the city.
They would probably hear about..the riot when it was all over.
To my surprise, the young man turned away, his speech and his
voioe exhausted, and ohé of the girls led him 'out, of the room like
Buv
denss
Han,
gettup
a child. He hadistirred their-passions. They also werezin a
wild state,
Miss Existenitalist dashed
to me
oopphr -
and, lowering
her face to my level, and'staring me straight in the eyes, her
teeth bared, her nose almost touch: ing mine, asked in her broken
Engiish aidn't I féel a bit uncomf ortable now, wasn't I a little
afraid, how did I liké it, eh? I smiled.at her in an aimless and
sheepish way, and shrugged. 'But I could say nothing. Words
absolutély refysed to come to my lips. And she turned away,
giving me a last. biting glance, as if my silence confirmed something
in her. mind..
I realised that my first few months at the college had been
based on a mistake; I'd been invited out to Baghdad by Arabs,
not through any official English organisation, and I'd assumed


that for this. reason: I-wasn't identified with British Embassy
politics, whatever they were, But this was
For
wrong.
the
first time I was hated in-my flesh; for a matter: that was beyond :
me, which. I'd never oreated and-which I knew almost nothing about.
Ifelt very sorry for myself: here were people burning. agains t
Embassy condescension and aloofness- if indeed thay were_burning
against any such thing--- Jand. hadn't L burned against it. as well,
in :other forns , at home, ali my. life? didn't I know what snubbing
and "condescension meant, better than they did?. Ànd they picked. on
me? In the.nameof liberty or: progress?, 24
They performed the same :
blind act against me, inmy fiesh, - as they condemnéd in their govern-
ment! And who said the British: Embassy was behind everything the
government did? What was- the evidenoe? : Let them- proxide a little 4
more than rumour and hearsay! And another. thing, there was no
VRe 1
such.thing as power without submission. AWho. was to blame the
He bilsh
British if they/used. infiuence where influence.was. tolerated?
'Instead of. saying that. the British were behind everything that
"happened, evén the weather, and. that,all_Engli shmèn were: spies, why
didn't. they stand up and'make: aigovernment cof the ir own, and clear
their oities. of slums, and rally the poor: péople?. And why did
they,build.me'up inot, a figure--a poor damjed fool of- a: teacheri---
unless: they wère burning with envy, that little maggot with a
1up
dosed Ron.
political face, that masquerades undér.the word liberty* -
couldn't helpit if they felt inferior: And who were these people
who felt. inférior? Who were these girls who were"beginning,to
bare their teeth at me now, who were. their. young brothers across
the road?. Quite half of them came to college in long, bright,
Americ an limousines; It was the done thing among the girls to
offer' a
me lift at the end of' the morning---me, the imperial
master, # who chadn't even a broken-down Ford, even a bicgole!


Their servants swarmed round the, gates every morning, salaaming:
and smiling, come to: fetch the littie ones! - The'se were the purveyors
of liberty to the people---the Sons'and daughters of tight-fisted
shopkeepers and. manufacturers, who- needéd
political'slogans to
the
Prulal
: hide theldiserepaney: between themselves and the malaria-ridden,
.tuberoular, half-starved masses under- themt -
needed a
Yes, they
scapegoatt, And here was I, a sit.ting target for a small,. mean
class who sènt out their children to learn English for further
commercial advantages!
In.fact, much fewer: than half the girls came in limousi nes.
There were a handfull of very rich girls. Most of them were the
children of professional people, d T bolieve-f-Jangers, téachers,
doctors. and so forth. They were. middle-class. Their hates. were
of. the deadly, abstract kinds They were notaifferent from the
British people they professed to hate; indeed, they were less
JE .
- liberal, less generous altogether; for they: hadn't travelled as
far along the middle-dlass roadr towards perfect citizenship.
That was. to some à
But I wa's confidentfroally, that nobody would touch me e
: They never did touch a foreigner. And,- it was st.range, they
iiked the English. Half-of theithings that stuck in. my throat. :
about England' they admired. I'thought I'çould quite. easily walk
"out into the street and go. home without being touched.. But also
I thought, considering the sizè of the;boulders being. flung about,
* and the unfathomable quality. of all human nature, that' I wouldn't
do. so. I stayed where 1 was, partly: fuming, partly quaking, and
partly making: sélent self-justifying, :
speeches: : Some of the 'ot her
girls followed Miss: Existentialist's lead and gave me taunting and
hostile glances; but the hatred in their casewas less. concentrated;
one or' two hroke into gigglég. I found out- that one of" the girls


cotgei
had lèft the college.and run across to the other side-of the-road,
jinf
i. had beon
P "haying heard that hér brother was injured in .sôme
The pblice
wày:
were' firing
into,the air, they said, "although Ididntt hear any -
reports,
hors wast as it happened, rescued." A Kurdish friend, hearing the
noise of. the riot from the ministry of justioewhere he worked,
telephonéd my home storsee if I-was there, then came straight"across -
in his.car. He: liked to make.grand gestures, and'enjoyed walking
from his car through a hail of stones to the college; slowly,
dresséd in his immaculate. white suit, tall.and slim,. with a pan'ama
hat at an angle over his brow, * his arms swinging at his si des loose-
ly, his pace long and. prowling., He prided -himselfion knowing most-
of the important. c'ommunists in - the city,and on. being the only
landowner they treated as: a friénd.. Ho'd'taken.me ône evening,
lyr
with an air'of
the
coispiracy, to
flat of communist cell, whe ere
there were two small, ureent-looking men with. revolvers in their
belts, who treated me: with little ceremony at first, seeming to,
remonstrate' with.my friend for having brough me; one of them, with
a glint of humanity in his eyes:. despite himself, took out his 1
revolver and played with it rather ostentatiously, but my friend
laughed and toid him to put it_asày. The flat was high. ovér the
"city, and 'we all sàt on the: terrace togethèr, looking ovér the
iron rail at the flat roof-tops below. where people sat on hammocks
and divan.beds, and. thè twinkling lights in- King .Feisai square, r
and the rolling, brown river in. the distance, with lighted mosques
on thérothèr bank. The two communists were also Kurds, from the
mountains; they were brisker th ên Arabs, without the black,
drowsy, y piercing"eyes; proud people who had always wanted a
country of their own, and felt' that England had prévên ted it
bringing Irag. into being as a' Kurdish-Arab state; they c'aused


: Next day my, studen ts were as cheerful and talkative as éver.
Miss Existentialist smiled. in the s'amè way. I péeréd int to. their tr
faces but couldn't find a trace of' the feelings of the. previous day.-
Thé girl who had'run across to the men's college was
askedito go
to the head's office that morning, and was givenia sévere talking-
to.. "But. she wasn't punished. She gave as ger excuse. the fact
that her brother had teen injured, and she couldn't bear to be
fear
separated from. him. Thére was still a sign of apprehension in the
- head's face. She . had -a sad, lip-biting manner
undrenéath her
authority. The other teachers drifted back and.sat in the recreat-
ion-room or the olerks' office as usual during the break, not
mentioning the disthrbances: : I believe most' of them agreed with
the principles behind it, - in any c'ase, They belonged to the
professional class: - They felt they were worth some.sort d social.
position, and they saw people like me, much younger, coming from
England or Françe or America and getting salaries that made theirs
Sty
look absurd's I remember one man in particular vho never forgave
me for arguing ragainst' sociology in a club-meeting; it was his
pèt subject; and my attack was unquestionably personal, he said,
designed to get him out"of the college. - In fact; I didn't know -
hims: Endless intrigues resulted from. this sort of thing, the. +
doggy, evil-smélling, cowardly intriguès that go on in colleges
everywhere; among people who think of themselves .as a. cut above
others mentally. Why couldn't they have burned down a college
or two? And put. vegetable-allotments in their place for the
poor!
I was : surprised to sée the young man who had givena spéech
too
in the recreation-room the day-berore. He came across to take


kinsly
a glass of tea. Weevent-spoke to.each other. He had soft eyes
and a most charming smilé. I asked him "what he
been saying
had
the,day before but he lookéd quite. blank. I even. begàn to-feel-
unsure that it had, happened. 1 The sunlight poured through the.
windows's It wàs one of, those extraordinary
mornings again, Cen(
when the poetry we were.reading. seemed to touch évérything lightly.
3 The girls: were all cheerful. (Iclowned in the, special 4 literature
class as, before.. The déan spéd: through thè entrance hall as on.
.evéry othêr morning, looking heavy with clichés. o - How lovely it
was to be in Baghdadt How delightful people were!
Pehays
chhac lett
iile tha dgsdliest cat Itare i
Le - pickoo
Rome: 1964.


THE RIOT:
Maurice Rowdon.


The Riob. *
At the time, of the riot in Baghdad I was workingat
one. of the colleges as ateacher. It was called
the Queen
Aliyah College, and was for girls only. Opposite, behind an
uneven wall, the brickwork of its fece exposed and rough like -
that of some mediaèval buildings one sees in Europe, was the chief
men*s college, calied' The College of Arts and Soiencos. and at
the endof the road was one of the gates. of the city, a wide
T square. where the buses stopped, with palm' trees and a dusty road-
cud
surface, with a kind of platform in the middle wheré oriminals
: and sometimes political - prisoners were hung early in the morning,
and left there hanging for three hours. a friend of mine, à
surgeon at the looal hospital, used to try to persuade me to eome
along to these hangings ; he' said they fascinated, him, rather as
surgery did. But I steyed awey, probably because of a fear that
I might find a similar fascination. in myself.
saw
I-never'
friend pérform an operation---that was another thing he. invited me
to and I managed to stay away from---but people told me that he -
warked with a tremendous concentration, bending low over his pat-
ient, with the sweat pouring out of his brow evén on cold days.
Neerly every. year there. was a. riot of some kind among the
students, in the cold weather, before or after Christmas; some-
times the riot was mild and-sometimes violent. The most violent
had béen just after the signing of a treaty with Britain, when
Earnest Bevin was foreign aecretary., Sinde then they had been
fairly quiet. But it. was said that the city, and thus the
- country, douldn*t.go on for long in this state; there were too
many communiéts,. too. many Russian agents living in the tall,
squalid blocks of flats near the- gate on the other side of the


city, where some of the better-class brothels were. - Students
in the College. of Arts and Sciences used' to réad Lenin and Marx
under the lids of their desks rather as if these were pornographic,
There wàs a steadily growing class of dissatisfied professional
pèople who wouldn't tolerate' Irag's connection. with England much
- longer; the treaty. was representéd as an act of slavery, only a.
voluntary treaty on the surfece; the ministers were looked on' as
lackies of the British Embassy, and much odium surrounded thé
person of the Prince Regent Abdullilah, who was later murdered;
-he was. said to have his fingér in évery big commercial deal in.
the city, especially the crooked déal, and to have amassed an
immense fortune by corrppt bargains with the government over pro-
pertyand. building contracts. There weré also too many poor
people.: But they.didnit. complain. It was' the st udents and the
proféssional people who résented and smouldered. They hated the
n fat, illiterate. ministers and under-sécretaries who might keep
them waiting in ên ante-room for two or three hours. - The son of
the prime minister was also hated. It was said of him that he
drank a bottle of whisky a days and was one of the lowest rakes
in the country. of all. the things that were.said about the.
péople in charge it was difficult to know what wàs true. When
later these people were murderéd, their bodies dragged through the
streets, it no longer mattered what the truth was; the,only
importânt fact was that the. anger had been ailowed to accumulate
too long, and nothing could stop it.
During this riot, which wasn't a particularly bad one,
I realisèd that. I waslooked on, hated and admired simultaneously,
as an Englishmen, not simply a friendly teacher from. a foreign
land as I thought I was: It was my first experience of being
looked at with politioal hatred, namely, a hatred that is blazing


and fieroe, quite without meroys yet in the strangest. way withe
out; anything personal in it.. My own students; espécially the
onés who were close to me, in my sppoial literature class, and
who were usually the friendliest to me, were those who. now looked.
at me most vénomously; the girl who héd the reputation of-being.
my favourite student, and who against all précedent had: come. to:
my hotel-room
first term at the
and,
college.
askèd mé all
sorts of questions about. existentialism. i.and Byron and life in
London and Paris, and so forth, ceme up to me, and_hissed an
insult in my face. The other students took little notice.of me
I mean those who nevér took the literature-clgsses and were matnly
under other teachers. They seemed blind to'me; their eyes looke d
vaguely pàst me when. they turned in my direction, silvery, stering,
with a. damped flame, smokya It was a miscalculation on my. part
to be in the college at. ali on the morning of a:riot. Usually
the. day of rioting wa's known beforehand; after all, there had to
- be some plan; and' thè xaxtodux'friendly" teactiers, those who
verentt identified with the goverriment of the British Embassys
vere nearly' always warnèd. - But. this time thererwas no warning.
Evèn the teacher who was famous for his Arab nationalism didn't
know. Afterwards I was told that this riot was the most spontan-
eous there had: been so fer; there really had been no plana:
It started during one of the classes. I realised "what W as up
the moment I heard shouting outsidé, like a wail, because this was
the week in which rioting was expected more or less. Iwas sitting
in my favourite classroom, where only six students oame, the most.
advanced - onès; it looked out on a quiet quadrangle where the sun
blazed down, making the walls look 1ike solid mud, encrusteds.
dazzling, with the sky just visibl e beyond thems. I've alwèys been
fascinated by. low buildings,. of. the kind one seès in mediaeval


towns, long with déep roofs, and.' this quadrangle had, something-"
of the same. kind. The air .was nearly always dusty ànd parchéd.
And some of the lovellest.d days were in the autumn, when thè cold
was coming; 'the air was extraordinerily clear, and the yellow
walls gleamed in a blinding way, making people narrow. their eyes,
so that. women in the.veil, showing only their eyes through a slit,
seemed to be'giving out two sharp points of light, fixed in the
black of their cloth, fiery and bright, yet closed in darkness as
well.
I think I. was going through *The Rape of the Lock* line by
line,. or. perhaps it was the first act. of Hamlet.. Almost every
phrase would have to.be explained. I enjoyed these lessons
thoroughly. Sometimes the room would seem to be. filled with the
nymphs: and sylphs Pope was.describing; the poetry would actually
touch and. enchant the room, nearly every morning, so that it was
a part of"the extraordinarily clear, yellow 1ight that blazèd out-
side and of the books we: were reading from, part of their print
and texturé; and sometimes itwould be a more mysterious light,
when we went through Hamlet, more stark, less decorated with this
dazzling brightness, less delicate and glittering; there would be
more .8ombreness,: but also tho room would seem less immediate to
*4 us, wë would be more taken up 'in, the words,: itwas more
mental,
but at the -same time there was the special relish. these words creat-
ed, a dramatic rélish, enacting even in their sounds the-splèndid,
sad, endless struggles that lay perianèntly in the fibres of lifé,
underneath. - I enjoyed acting the. lines, and sométimes clowned
about, but this. produced. an atmospheré of over-excitement. a
The girls ceme. to the college in their abbas, or at le ast most
-of them-did. These vére biack cloaks that stretched over their
heads. like e hood, made of silk, which they could draw up to their


eyes so tha't they were completely hidden excépt for a slit,at the
old.
44 aE
browe - Only the pmax romen of Baghdad, and then usually of the.
poor classes, wore the veil, proper,.a piece of black cloth that
stretched across. the face just above the nose. Thé éducated class-
es had- dispensed with it on thowhole,"and women covered their facees
at will, if. they went out into the
streets at all. Not all the -
- giris wore the oloakyoven"those from' the traditional femilies;
the Christian Arabs and the' Assyrians never did, - but came in ordin-
ary westorn clothes. The-head, of the collége was a Turkish voman,
a spinster, and: her assistant a Canadian married to oné: "r of the govern-
ment ministers, who was latèr imprisonèd for'some years by - the revol-
utionary governments. The result.was a slight element of sugfragett-
- : ism in the .college, though of course it made poor weather against its
total opposité outside the walls. Whén the girls took off their
abbas and put: them 'on hooks in the entrance hall they révealed
western. clothes underneath---high-heeled shoes, tight jumpers, little
trinkets and clasps, and most. of them wore 1lipstick. I remember
one. clasp, worn by"Miss Existentialist on hér jumper, which wasa
miniature representation ofa telephone, cream-coloured, its wire
in the form'of a little golden. chain.
Not all the. students. were young girls, There was a woman. of
thirty-five orso who- had lost her husbe and . same years before, end - i
was said to write poetry; she.chain-smoked and. sat quite still in *
a'hunched way, broodingly, her great. black eyébrows seéming to
weigh down on her eyès and almost close them, in sleep, while her,
lips smiled slightly. She, had the character of someone reflective
and gifted: sometimes she was quick and fluent, and sometimes
totally dull, unable to suggest anything, only smoke endlessly,
wrapped in her strange, silent darkness. One of the unexpected
things in the college was that smoking was allowed, even in the


examination room. There was ' also another, woman of the ohain-smokér's
: age, her closest friend; with a long, dark, rather beautiful dace;
"something. soemedito hold. her back. all_the time,,in the flesh, Bome-
thing. ancient perhaps, from thë past; a kind of dragging, slow-footéd d-
quality that stopped.her mind from lighting up and, only gave her, dim t
and' heavy. thoughts, borne slowly out of a brooding, insensate concent-
ration, so that: overything in.her seemed soft and drowsy,,in' a: desert
heat, éven her
"which oame out unwillingly, strained, and
voide,
dedp;
her slowness wasn't like that.of her friend---it. had nothing reflect-
ive in it; and.she had the_sime: kind of smile, but iti s was girlish
and inconsequential, not sad as hér friendts was; - yet they both had.
something ancient in: them that pulled them bàck in different
ways,
and -mâde this qriok western or Christian learning difficult for them,
while-fascineting. : Thé beautiful oné. took me aside -one day. and
asked me if I_could accept. a, gift.of a new. fountain pén from her-
she had heard that I(d iost mine* 'I was delighted. and took
it with-:
out thinking. * Lator in the day the other, teachers. told.me I shouldn*t
have done this; it meant that she wanted a a good mark in the exam-
inations, which, rere just coming round at the:time. I.refused to
believe it, but when. I failed, her later. on she
looked at me in a
completetly disgusted and dishonoured ways.and told me she VD uld -
never :
havo thought capable , of such a thing; her look made me feel,
complétely treacherous.' Her-Work was childish, with a slows dim
understanding; there. was. something lovely in it, but, the sentences
didntt finish, and there wére strange misconoeptions. The'chain-
snoker also was: sàd at her friend being failed; there was a brood-
ing,, end-of-shé-World feéling round, them both. It was a world I
oould: - glimpse into, for a moment. Perhaps the at mosphere was a,
little iike a harèm, espécially when the classroom door was cldsed
and the girls were quite themselves. They were in no doubt-


except one,a pale, slim, gentle girl,whose answers were always
to the: point, and whose brother was a teacher at another college-
that I marked the.exmination paparex according.to the 1iking I
had for- each of them. it seemed. quite natural'to them that the
girl whose brothér was. a fellow-teacher of mine should como out
top, and that Miss Existentialist should come second..
The noisiest par't of the morning was the
when the
break,
long, recroation-room, was filied with girls, and a bar at one end
served lemon-tea. and" Turkish' coffee in glasses.. At first I used
to go there. every day, but it always meant being drawn into one
of.thè talkative littlegroups and then, later, being reproached
for having shown some students more attention thén others. y By
the end of the first term: I was having tea 'on my, own, in a little
room reserved for the clerks:and the bursar of the college, at I
would go ovér to the men*s college opposite where there was a
proper teacherst comnon roome -But. the recreation-room was the
€ most pléasant; it had cheerful frescoes on the walls and little'
tables for four, people,and settèes along one wall; it had all.
been arrangèd by'the dean,a small talkative and chaiming women
whose head was full of once-fashionable olichés from western
Europe; Paris was the plàce for her, a and her room was. : full of
the latest Parisian megazines, the fashion - ones and the artistic
avantgarde onese, She vould tell the girls all ab out the artistst
that one saw in the stréets of the Latin Quabtrr and Montmartre,
and she spoke French with a wonderful fluency. r
After the: first yélling_sterted outside, the head of the
college, a paié, guièt, sad-faced Toman, came round to each class-
room and told the girls quietly that they must keep their places
and that. anyone taking part in what was going on outside would be


punished." She.said thie- with_nertowed, sl ightly. fluttering
eyes, her 11ps. pursed, but olearlyshe feit. apprehensive. Her
hand was shaking a little as_she çiosed the: door- agains Some of
the yells outssde,were father blood-curdling,.and the girls got
up from their places'one by'one, : taking no notice of me, e There -
wasa bustle in the, entrance hall outside. It.was.ciearly the
timefor rumours to-startTlying. It happened to be nearly-break-
time,, and people drifted into' the récreation-room. As yet there
seemed to be no. violence outside. The assistant head, the :Canadian
woman, told meit woula bé bettér to stay in the college, as she
hurriéd pasti 1 There vasn't another teachér to-be seen Even the
bursar wasn't in his little. office, nor the - clerks It was a
bright, olear day, and the sun-streamed through the tall Windows.
There wàs 1 no one serving tea. I looked for the woman of fashion-
ablé clichés, but she wasntt to be found either. Even the head of
the collegé had diseppearede There were only students and ne d
I began to hope that théy liked me-s-all- of thema
The yelling outside increased, and' then there was the sound of
smashing glass. - I rent out into the narrow quadrangle that gave
onto the streets and saw: that most: of the students of the college
opposite wére: coliécted. on, the roof and vere dropping sizéable
boulders domn, to. prevent anyoné coming into their college.
Thé police werocoliected in thé. road, which was, otherwise quite
déserted as I had. never seen. it before. The students were aling-
ing small stones and pebbles down at: them, and the police, wère
moving about dexterously, finding little.areas of' shelterst érouching
down, their rifles cockéd and ready, though amhost certainly they
had orders not tofire Torone side, standing by an orfidial. car,
officer
there was a police-28atNy directing mat: ters. There, washtt another
vehicle to be seens The usual beggars and mules and donkeys,


*- and' sun-bléached, oreaking.carts, and old cloaked women, soft
of foot, gliding swiftly aldng the: pavements, to which they always
seemed 'to bélong so: littles were 'no longer there. I 'noticed that
there nere.giris as well. on the.roof opposite;. they.were waving
down to our girls, who seèmed. to be taking the situation in a giggly
waye But then thé'stones atarted flying dangèrously---they must
have :spent hours collecting"this armament together on the
roof,
behind the low
It.seemed 'that the.
promontory..
police were trying
to: force'ai ontry into the-college, perhaps to clear
with
the'place
tear-gas, and: as they got nearer the building, from a flank, the
boulders and stones begans to fall. more thickly, making. dull thuds
on the sandy'earth below. One of the windows of our college, was
suddenly smashed, and everyone" ran inside. The police pushed the -
remaindér of the girls : back, and the doors of-the college were then
made faste, I decided to go-and.sit in the récreation-room, an d
to look:as uncondorned as'possible, though I was very_frightened,"
and could see myself being strungiup' 'on a pole. end having my limbs"
cutoff slowly and ône by one, ending with the. genitals, while the
girls danced a frightful kinf of feminine death-dance round me.
I told myself that: - had good training during the war for benaving
Iaa
calmlyb while in a state of: purè funk inside, and I composed myself
on my chair and began :to read the book I'a brought from the clas S-
room; or rather, I tried tor
Still none"of. the girls took any. notice, of. mé. This felt to
me iike the negligende-xof people: who hade absolute porer in thed r
hands'; a judge might bernegtigent like that béfore putting the
black cap on his head. - But suddenly one.of the outsidé. doors
burst open with a terrific. force, and I thought, 'Here goes!
. Theretil be a real right. nowtr Apparentlys the police hadn't been
strong enough to.stop the riot spreading into the stréets But I


was-mistaken.: "1 It was. only one.young man. . However, thére wàs *
blood running. down hi's.face, together with sweat, and he was
yelling
- frantically. He dashed. straight into the récreation-room- -to get
mo, I- thought---rollomed by séveral of the, giris, and.began yelling
in.the. most distréssed way, his eyés quite- blind, clearly seeing
nothing round him at ail,. even me, trembling all over, his shirt in'
rags, while. the girls gazed. at: him with rapt. sympathy. It seemed
hewas making a sortof speèch. His-eyes passed.over me while he
€ talked, settled.on me, passed.on again, pierced through: me, while
* the'words poured out of his mouth. I began to ask: myself where aii
my Arab-friends : Wére: Surely
would realise
a fix?
théy
Iwas in.
But' they: wère all far afield. One was in the hospital.on the.
other side of the
another'ran a'
enothér was
isquare,
bookshops
thé ministry of justice; another_at the racecourse outside the citys
They would probably, hear about the riot when - it was: ail over.
To my surprise, the young man turned awvay : -his speech and his
voice. exhausted, and one of the girls led him out of thè room like
a childs He had stirred their passions. They also were in a
wild state now a : Miss Existenitalist dashed up to me and, lowering
hér face-to my level,. and staring 'me straight in. the eyes, her
teeth bared, hér nose almost touching mine, asked in hér-broken
English didn't I féel abit. tincomfortable. :
now, washtt. I a little
afraid," how did I like: it, eh? - I smiled at her in an aimless and
sheepish way,. and shruggeda But- I'could 'say nothing 3 vords
absolutely,refysed to come to'my lips. And she
turned,awey,
giving mé a: last biting glande, as - if my silence confirmed something
in herrmind.
I realised'that my' first few months at the college had been
bàsed on a mistake ; Itd beon invited out to Baghdad by Arabs,
not through any offic ial English argenication,.and Ia assumed


that for- this. reason 'I wasn't identified with British Embassy
* politios, whatever they nere. But this was wronge: For -the
first time I was hated in. my flésh, for a matter that: was beyond
me, which I'd néver created. end whioh I knew almost nothing about.
I felt vory'sorry for myself: hère. were péople burning against
: Embasey condescension, and aloofness---if indeed thay were burning
against any such thing---and hadn't I
burned-egainst it.as well,
inother forms, at home, ali my life? didn't I know. What snubbing
and condescension. meant, better'thén they did? : And they picked on
me? In the. nameof liberty or progress? A Théy. performed the. same
blind açt: against me,. in my flésh, as they condemned in their govern-.
menti And who said the- British Embassy was,, béhind everything the
governmènt did? What was theevidenge?. Let them protide a little
more than rumour and y hearsay! And another thing, therè wasno -
such thing. as power without submiséion. Wiho was to blème the
British if they used infiuence where influence was tolerated?
Instead of saying that the-British were behind overything that
happened', even the wéather, and that all Englishmen' Were spies, why
didn't they stand up. and meke a government of their own, and cléar
their oities of slums, and raily the poor people? and why did
they. build mé up inot afigure--a poor"damded fool of a: teacheri--
unless they were burning. with' envy, that littlé maggot with a
political face, that masquerades under the word 'liberty*? - I
couldn't help it if they felt. inferior! And who were these people
who'felt inferior? * Who wére. these, girls who were. boginning to
bare their teethat me now,. who wére their young brothers-across
thé road? Quite half of them came to college in long, bright,
Americen limousinest It was the done thing among the giris to
offer me a lift at the end of the morning---me, the imperial
master, who hadn't even a broken-down Ford, even a. biogole!


Their servants. swermed. round the gates every
morning, salaaming
and smiling, come to: fetch-the little one si These were the purveyors
of. liberty torthe péople- -the:sons and. daughters ot. tight-fisted
shopkeepers énd menufacturers, who needed the political slogans to
hide thé discrépancy between themselves and the malaria-ridden,
tubércular, half-starved.masses under: themt Yés, they needed a.
scapegoats And here was: I, a sitting target for a small, mean-
:class who-sent. out thèir children to learn English.far further
commercial advantagest
'In faot, mch fewer than-hair the girls,camé in limousl nes.
There "were a handfuil .of veryrich-girls." Most of them veré the
chiidren of professional people, I believe---lamyere, teachérs,
doctors and so forth. - They wère middle-olass. Their hatés were
of. the deadly, abstraot kind. * They were- no different: from the
British péople they proféssed to hato;. indeed, they. were less
riberai, less genérous altogéther; for they hadn't. travelled as
fér along - the middio-class roadx. towerds perfect citizenship."
That was. to dome.
But I was confident, réally, that, nobody would touch ime à
Thèy nevér did touch a foreigner, And, it was. st. rànge, they
liked the English, Haif vof the-things that stuck in my throat.
about England : thoy admired.. I thought I could quite easily walk
out into the' street and go home without being toucheds But also
I thought, considering the size of the boulders being flung about,
and the'unfathomabl6 quality of ali human" nature, that I'wouldn't
do so. r I stayed where iwas, : partly fuming, partly quaking, and
partly making sdlent self-justifying speechéss Some of the ot her
girls. followed Mi Ss Existentialist's lead and. gave ne tainting and
hostile glances; but the hatrèd in their case.was léss concentrated;
one or .tvo hroke into giggles. I found out that one' of tie girls


had left thé college and run aoross to the other side of the road,
having heard that hèr brother was injured in some waye The police.
were firing into the air, they said, although i didnitt hear any
reports.
I was, as. it happened, rescued.. A. Kurdish friend, hearing the
noise ofthe. riot from the ministry of justice where he. worked,
telephoned my home to see if I was there, then came straight across
in his car. He liked to make. grand géstures, and enjoyed walking
from his car through a hail of stones to'the college, slowlys
dressed in his immaculate white suit, tall and slim, with a panama
hat at : an angle over his brow, his arms swinging at his sides loose-:
lys his pace long and prowling-, He prided: himself on knowing, most
of the important dommun ists in. the city, and on being the only
landowner they treated as a friend. He'd taken me one evening,
with an air of conspiraoy, to the flat of a communist oell, vhere
- there were two. small, urdent-looking men with révolvers in their
belts, who treated 'me with little ceremony at first, seeming.to
remonstrate with.my friend. for having brough me; one of them, with
a glint of humanity in his eyes despite himself, took out his
révolver and played with it rather ostentatiously, but my friend
laughed and told him to put it. aaay. The: flat was * high over the
city, and we all sat on the terrace together, looking over the
iron.rail at the flat roof-tops below where people sat on hammocks
and divan beds, and the. twinkling lights in King Feisal square,
and the rolling, brom river in the distance, with lighted mosquès
on the other bank. The two communists were also Kurds, 'from the
mountains; they were-brisker th an Arabs, without the black,
drowsy, piercing eyes; proud people who had always wanted a
country of théir own, and felt that England had préven ted. it. by
bringing Iraa into béing' as a.Kurdish-Arab state; they caused"


much of thé political unrest.. But they were also Mislims, and
now felt. thoroughly Iragi, on the whole. My friend 'was married
not to a Kurd but a girl from Beirut who spoke fuént French and
who-had never worn the veils . Ho told that in this communist cell,
yhich was like hundreds of.others in' the.city, there were armed
men waiting for *the day*, which would happen in two years, five
'years, ten years; - but happen it. certainly would, Ànd happen it
did, in about eight yéars, with-staggering violence, to thè surprise,
apparently, of- the diplomats and so-called Arab experts. The.
-primé minister-was murdered and dragged through the streets with
his feet cut off, the Prince Regent and the king werè both shot,
énd thè British Embassy was burned to the ground, A Kurd became
thè leader.
I was-happy to sèe my friend inthe doorway of the recreation-
room. He had a wonderful smile on. his face, ând looked immonsely
tall.with the girls round hime - And - we walked out of the bi ilding
arm in arm, with the stones still flying abouti Not much notice
was taken of us. Students were still yelling'on the roof,
although the police had gained an entrance, Things had abated
somewhat: Thé road was uncannily still and desertéd, apart from
policemen dotted everywhere, still ducking. down behind walls -and
trees, as if thèy were in battle, while thè -strange, blood-ourdling
criesechoed down from the roof. It wouldn n't last mich (longer,
my friend. saids. It was a damp squib. The.' police wero-well in
control, The prime minister, for the noment, had chargé de things;
he hàd the right *instinctt. His mistake eight years later,
people said, was one of foréign policy, in not joining the.jArab
*crusade against Israel with sufficdant enthisiasm; the *Baghdad
Pactt, engineered by- England, cutting aross Arab-unity, vas ja
blot on his career, they saids Anywaya he was- murdered.


Next: day my students-were -as. cheerful and talkative as évor
iiss Existentialist smiled in the same way. Ipeered into their A
facès but couldn*t find'a trace of the feclings of the previous daya
Thè girl who had 'run across to the men's college was,asked, to go
to-the head's office that norning, and was given. a severè talking-
tos But' she wasn*t punisheds She gave as ger excuse the fact.
that hér brother had teen injured, and she-couldn't bear to ba
separated from him. There was still a sign of apprehension in the
heàd's face. She had a sad, lip-biting mânner undroneath-her 4
authority. Thè other teechersdrifted back and.sat. in the reoreat-
ion-room or the clerks' office as usual during the break, not
méntioning the disthrbances.. I believé most-of them - agreed with.
the principles. behind it, in.any case. They belonged to the
professional class, . They felt they were worth some sort dd social
position, and they saw people like- mo, mich. younger, coming from
England or France - or America and getting salariés that made theirs
look absurd. I remember one: nan. in particular, vhonéver forgaye
me for arguing *against* sociology in a club-meeting;: it was his:
pét subject, and my attadk was unquestionably personal, he said,
designed to get him out of the collége. In.fact, I didn*t knon
hima Endless intrigues rèsulted from this sort: of thing, the
doggy, evil-smelling, comardly intrigues that go on in-colleges
everywhere, among people who think of themselves as a out above
F F,
others mentally- Thy couldn't they have burned down a. college
or two? And put, vegetable-allotments. in théir place for the
poort
- I was surprised to see the young man who had givon. a spéech
in the recreation-room the day beforée - He came. 'aoross to take


'a glass of teae, I We evèn spoke"to each other. : He "had soft eyes
ànd'a most charming. smiles 4 fasked him what he had' been saying
the aay.before:but he looked 'quite blank. Ieven
began to feel
unsure that. it" had happeneds The sunlight poured through the
windows. It was one. of those extraordinary mofnings againg;
when the poetry we were reading seemed to touch. everything, lightiy. t.
The, girls were all. cheerful.
tclomed. thé
literaturé
special
class as before. The dean spéd through the entrancè hali as. on
: every.other morning, looking' heavy with olichés How lovely it:
? was.to.be in Baghdadi. - How-delightful people: weret