Page 331 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1927

& a P M S Colonel, rather a nice elderly man, the Residency surgeon, also four dogs & a large number of Persian servants &
attendants. Went in & drank some beer & then came back to lunch. Played tennis & had tea there in afternoon & then some of
them came round to the house, unfortunately the Pennings called. He has developed a perfectly foul habit of making a sort of
gargle & spitting noise, quite disgusting.

Saturday 19th [November]

Drove out to Budeya in the morning in car with Barrett & the Resident. He talked mostly about gardening, his mania, but also
about Bray's visit & impressions. They have decided to do away with Parke and de Grenier & to replace them with Arabs,
which will make for loss of efficiency. Its rather hard on them & of course it will make a big difference having fewer English
people here. He was very pleasant but rather pompous. Sulman called on him in the morning & brought 4 silugis, he accepted
them all, bringing the number of dogs on the ship up to nine. Lunched at Agency, also M, & then talked in office for about 2
hours. He showed me Bray's report, he gave me an extremely good chit saying how lucky they were to have found a person
with such tact & experience etc etc, really very nice & of course I am pleased as a `chit' from Bray, who is next to the Viceroy,
means a lot. Came back to tea & then went to Biladya garden. Mrs Barrett came to dinner. She is staying with us as Barrett
has joined the "trippers"! They pay £200 a day for the ship & will be away for over a month. Scandalous. Rather stormy in
the evening. I didnt envy them.