Page 306 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1927

greybeards of the place. Sulman is quite good at this sort of work. Had a bathe in the spring before lunch. The sight of Sh.
Sulman bathing with an attendant standing in the water behind him holding an umbrella over Sulman was very comic. A very
good lunch, provided by Sulman. Afterwards sailed back & got home about 1 pm. Took a lot of photos. Hope they come out.
Parke departed on the down boat for Bombay where he is going to meet his wife, expects to be back here in exactly one month.
Zoumeroff also went away.

Thursday 6th Oct

Went down to the Joint Court in morning & had another go at the question of reducing the Civil List by cutting down some of
the allowances. Finally settled it & made a revised list. It will cause much moaning among the Ruling Family but they are a
lazy crowd & I dont see why the state should support them. Sh Sulman gave me rather a nice photo of the Shaikh taken when
he was in England, but he always looks so terribly serious when he is being taken, he seems to think it unsuitable to be taken
smiling & so when one of the photos taken of him at home showed him smiling he wouldnt allow anyone to see it. Went to the
garden after tea & Alban came to dinner, then we went to the wedding of one of his clerks, a Sikh who lately became a
Mohomedan & has now married an Arab girl - gossip says he changed his religion in order to marry her. Quite a number of
the notables were there. We went first to his house & then at the head of the procession to the ladies house. As usual shown
into the bridal chamber lined with mirrors & coloured silks, with two trays in the middle & six candles burning on each. Then