Page 222 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

220

1927

Sunday 22nd May

No court. Parke came to dinner. No news. Sh Abdulla came in.

Monday 23rd [May]

We had a sort of cabinet meeting in the morning at the Customs, the Shaikh & Abdulla & Mohamed. Discussed the question
of the three Kadis. Finally decided on the three who are, curiously, all of the same name, each is called Abdel Latif! The idea
is that they should form a sort of clerical court sitting some days at Muharraq & some days in Manama. The old Kadi, Shaikh
Jasim, is naturally very sore & angry about it, but he is 86, blind & very deaf & takes literally years over settling cases also he
is run by his sons & clerks who take his seal & fix it on all sorts of documents without his knowledge. Myself I think it is
perhaps a pity, but the people have asked the Shaikh to do this & he, of course, agreed. Discussed the Biladya & settled to
appoint the people's members first so that when the Govt appoints its 5 members we shall be able to counteract any
undesirable factions that may seem too powerful.

Then discussed the subsidiary Court, of which Parke is to be President & one of the Khalifas to be on, they want the third
member to be an Indian & the other possible man is Ashraf, the owner of a large shop, who Parke will certainly object to.