Page 408 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1929

Friday 25th [January]
Went down the bazaar in the morning, rather empty but seemed extra full of colour. The part where they sell clothes,
head cloths etc are very gay as they have them hanging up outside the shops. Here there is a queer and very trustful
way of leaving a shop empty when the owner goes away for an hour or so by just hanging a fishing net across the front
of the shop. One rarely hears of cases of theft from shops left empty. Went round to the Bank and played Bridge.
Very stormy weather and a very strong shamaal blowing. Went to tennis at the Agency but one couldnt play properly
owing to the wind. Bridge. Left very early as both rubbers finished at seven oclock and the Barretts never go on
beyond seven, goodness knows why.

Saturday [26 January]

Court. A lot of cases but began early so got them finished in good time. Sulman arrived looking very quaint in black
goggles, thick fur gloves, which I brought out to him from England, and simply swathed in layers of thick woolen
clothes made up in Mosul which is a cold place in the winter. In the afternoon we went a short drive and then to tea at
the Strakers. Their small boy is very attractive, aged 16 months. Played Bridge. Very pleasant, nobody there except
ourselves. Barretts came to dinner and played Bridge, though we hadnt intended to but they seemed to want to. Quite
a good dinner. Had a fire as it was so very cold.

Sunday 27th Jan 1929

Busy day. I seemed to have a constant stream of visitors. I always see people on Wednesdays and Sunday as they are
my only free days. Meeting of the heirs in the big Khalifa estate case about the leasing of a lime kiln, they are all lesser
Shaikhs and all on very bad terms with eachother. Mohamed Tayeb Khunji came to haggle about the price of a bit of
Government land which he wants to buy. He is a little Persian merchant with the chin of a mule and very tight fisted.
He goes on as if he was bargaining in the suk. Various other people called among them Mohamed Yatim who is going
up to Basra to join Major Holmes. Still a violent shamaal and very cold. Had a fire in the sitting room after lunch.
The Shaikh came in in the afternoon. He didnt look well and was very hoarse. He came upstairs and sat in front of the
fire for over an hour talking business and otherwise. One thing amused me. He looked at the fire and said it reminded
him of a very nice lady he had met in London at the Hotel Curzon, she had said she would like to go back to Bahrain
with him, he said he offered to take her. I asked what her name was, he said he couldnt remember but she was very
nice, she belonged to the Hotel and "was the one who used to light the fires for them in their suite" the chamber maid.
He was very tiresome about his money affairs. He always complains that he has not got enough money. His income is
about £20.000 a year but if he had double he would never find he had enough. He has simply no idea of money or of
economy. M was sitting in the room all the time and was surprised when he suddenly got up and took off his daggar
and bisht and began saying his prayers in the middle of the room. He didnt look very well. Went out for a short drive
afterwards and then back to tea, Parke came in and stayed to tea. Very full of his big case. It is all very exciting, he is
gradually getting all the evidence about the attempted assasination of the Shaikh two years go, and the worst of it is
that the Shaikh's own brother, Shaikh Abdulla al Khalifa, is apparently at the bottom of it. The Shaikh pretends all the
time when he is with Abdulla that he takes no interest in the matter but really he is keenly interested. Yesterday Parke
got hold of one of Shaikh Abudlla's servants who is mixed up in it. Abdulla was in the Court when Parke spoke about
it to the Shaikh, The Shaikh had before this told Parke to arrest the man as he himself suspected him, when he talked.
Later on Parke came back again. He had been sitting hidden in the back of one of the prison cells at the Fort in the