Page 117 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1927

Haji Abdel Ali Rejab arrived early before breakfast to see me with news of another shooting show at a
village a mile along the coast. Went along to tell Barrett who I couldn't get at for some time as he was in his
bath, then motored out to the place. One man of the village shot dead, & three wounded, and one of the
attackers who they reported to be about 50 men. Great excitement. It was a big robbery, an attack by armed
robbers. They succeeded in carrying of some money. The man who was shot had on him some loot from
one of the houses. Later the Dr arrived & then Barrett. Sent out parties to various villages & did all I could,
but no time as the boat was supposed to sail at noon. Came out in the Sheikh's launch which he lent also one
of his sons who is going to Bombay & some of his servants taking down one of his cars to Bombay. Quite a
nice boat but small. Crammed with passengers, Arabs, travelling first, masses of divers & a Persian General,
a Dr & awful chi chi wife going to Linga, & Pack, the last being the only bright spot in the party. Didnt sail
till nearly sunset. Awfully noisy & cabin very stuffy. Quite good food at dinner, afterwards had a most
interesting talk to Pack about Bahrain & diving. He complains of the methods of the Arabs, they definitely
make a bargain, price settled & all done, then suddenly say that he must give them a motor car on top of it, or
50 bags of coffee. Everyone expects backsheesh, servants, relations of buyers & sellers, & everybody else,
& even the big merchants worth many lacks of rupees dont hesitate to ask for a tip for their people. Also he
complained of their intense fondness for interfering & great inquisitiveness. They will always take trouble to
sort of settle eachothers disputes not for the sake of any profit but from fondness of being consulted & from
like of interfering. Another thing is their great thought of public opinion which is the most vital thing to
them in everything. They will make a bad bargain preferably to being thought poorly of.

Thursday 4th [November] SS Baroda