Page 107 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

105

1926

Went along to see Barrett in the evening. Tired, all the fuss & bother needs such a lot of watching. One has to
measure every word & I never know who is at the back of anything.

Tuesday [12 October]

Municipal Council Meeting - very dull. Walked back with Sheikh Abdulla & had a long talk to him. Mahomed Sharif
called to ask about some land of his which was to be given as compensation for some taken for the sea wall. Before
the meeting the Sheikh & I & Barrett inspected a house to be bought for road widening. The Sheikh was bored stiff, &
showed it. He doesnt take the least interest in things of this kind - in fact he takes very little interest in anything!

Tea & tennis at Spences & started the Bridge Tournament, really very pleasant, they certainly do take pains to
entertain their guests. Mrs Spence tried to teach me to play Mah Jong - it seems a good game but Mrs S was not a
good teacher!

Wednesday [13 October]

Court in the morning instead of yesterday. Went a drive in the afternoon & to dinner at Barretts in evening. Quite a
big party, about ten people. Afterwards played Bridge.

Thursday [14 October]

Court in the morning & in the middle of it Abdulla bin Jabr, the Sheikhs confidential servant, arrived with the Sheikh's
car & an urgent message asking me to go & see him. On the way there he told me that last night the Sheikh motored
out to his wife's house at Bedda, he in the big car, with his sons, & about six servants following in another car behind.
The servants carried daggers but no firearms. At a narrow place on the Budeya road, between two date gardens
there is a steep awkward bridge, over a water channel. As they past the bridge they were fired upon from the left of
the road. Abdulla put on speed & they rushed past & on to the house. One shot hit the car, on the mudboard but
nobody was shot. It was a marvel that they didnt get the Sheikh.

When I got to the Palace I found the Sheikh sitting outside with a lot of people, not very agitated. He told me the
whole story again. I took some of his servants, & Omar, my Sudanese policeman, & motored out to see the place, ten
minutes out of the town. It was a carefully planned affair, four holes made in the fence between the road & the
garden & places for rifles to rest. The distance to the car about 10 feet. Amazing that they missed. The garden