Page 135 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1927

About 300 divers came to the office to protest against the Tesquam being reduced. I had in the spokesman &
spoke to him at length, a decent intelligent fellow. He quite understood that it was being done for the divers
benefit but he said in the meantime it was hard on them & not enough to live on. Holmes came to call after
lunch & stayed on to tea. He is a great talker. I wonder if he will really find oil. After seeing me the divers
walked out to see the Shaikh, 13 miles. I tried to stop them but they were determined to see him themselves.
We didnt go out after tea as Holmes stayed so long. He has been in America & was really quite interesting to
listen to. Very fat & not a very educated accent - Daly said it was because he was Colonial. Still I rather
doubt it, however I quite like him.

31st Dec 1926 FRIDAY

Parke came in the morning to discuss a raid on an illicit arabic still. Went down the bazaar with him later on.
To tea & tennis at the Agency, had some very good games, & to dinner party at Mespers. Quite a good
show, really enjoyed it. Played various games afterwards & did charades. Mrs Barrett shone at charades,
really acted quite well. Parke very bored by the whole proceedings. A good dinner. de G was as usual
terrible. Nobody drank too much. Barrett was very lively in rather a clumsy way. M wore her new dress,
very pretty, expensive looking & more suited to London than Bahrain. Parke's raid didnt come off, the stuff
was not ready, still being made according to his information. Sixteen people at the Spences, only the two
unmarried mission women.