Page 367 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

364

1928

Thursday Feb. 2nd

Went round to the Meglis Urfi again. The President still rather nervous & very careful about his dignity. Stayed for
some time & then came back to the Court here.
Went to the garden in the afternoon & then people came in for tea & Bridge.

Friday [3 February]

Motored out to Mohamed Yatem's garden & saw the artesian water. It is a wonderful sight, far more water than any of
the other wells. It is so powerful that it lifted up Armstrong on a plank & he is a large stalwart Scotsman. Agency in
afternoon. Ayesha & her mother after going to the Agency came to call here. They are going it - both had quite low
necks & it certainly suited them.

Saturday 4th Feb.

Court, took a lot of diving cases in morning. The Shaikh looked in on his way back from Joint Court. Went out to
Sakhrir in afternoon, cold & a lot of sand blowing. We went out in the Shaikhs big car, most comfortable. Talked
about de Grenier & various other things. Saw the new building which is really very nice & not very expensive. It
consists of an upper room & two small rooms & a big gateway with a Meglis inside & a lot of repairs & general doings
up. The Parkes came in after tennis at the Agency. Discussed the Khaled case & Barrett's reply to the Shaikh saying
that the case may be reopened. The Khaleds are some of the Shaikh's relations who murdered a lot of Baharnis & were
banished for life & their property confiscated by order of the Shaikh, forced to do it by Daly. They now complain at
having to live uncomfortably on the mainland & the Shaikh thinks they are sufficiently punished & should be allowed
to return. Barrett has allowed him to sanction a new trial by the Kadis. To my mind it is very wrong.

Dined with Major Holmes. Discussed the question of the sea road to Muharrak. Its a stiff proposition. de
G came in after dinner & we played Bridge. As usual a most excellent dinner.

Sunday 5th [February]

Mail, a very small one. Went over to the Agency to see Barrett about some business. I do wish he was not so non
commital. A call from Mohamed Yatim about the cinema & then a call from Ali bin Seggar & Ahmed bin Khamis
against the cinema. Ali bin Seggar is a big pearl merchant, one of the "Tories" always opposed to anything new. He
got very excited & noisy. He brought the other man in the way that they always do to act as a sort of third person in
conversation, speaking mostly to him but of course entirely for my benefit. His argument was that the Govt ought not
to allow the cinema as children would get to like it, spend money on it & if their parents didnt give them money they
might steal it. Absurd. He admitted that he had been to one in Bombay - he said that it was silly & he was not amused
or interested by it but at the same time he described the film at length & as he saw it several years ago he was evidently
sufficiently interested to remember all details. I pointed out that the Shaikh of Kuwait had a cinema of his own at
which he told long stories of the Kuwait Shaikh's bad morals saying he kept Baghdadi dancing girls - all of a piece with