Page 368 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

366

1928

Various people came to call in morning, wrote a lot of letters in office. Very windy in afternoon, the wind spoilt a lot
of things in this garden being on the shore it gets very blown about by wind.

Thursday 9th [February]
Barrett & I went out hunting with the Shaikh. Left after an early breakfast, took the dogs & motored out to his hunting
place down the coast towards the end of the island. Found him there & also Abdulla & Mohamed & a lot of their sons
& others of the family. Sat for two hours in a little stone hut after we got there which was a great waste of time. Sh
Mohamed held forth in his usual tiresome way, he shouts all the time & being very conceited talks as if what he said
was news & of huge interest to everybody. A tiresome man. Then had lunch - not up to much, a heap of rice & some
rather tough chickens. A horrid thing happened. After lunch we were all standing outside, washing our hands after
eating. We saw all the dogs, about 20, chasing something & it turned out to be a poor little young donkey, only a few
months old. The donkey's mother was rushing about trying to protect it & the dogs were coursing it like a hare, the
Shaikhs sent for their glasses & looked on thinking it a huge joke & only Abdulla protested. The dogs pulled it down
& bit it badly, then eventually they sent a man to rescue it. Finally mounted & rode off, the Shaikh & Barrett on
donkeys & the rest of us on camels, camels here are poor things compared to our ones in Egypt. We were out a long
time but only put up two hares, one they caught at once & the other after a very short run. On the whole a poor day's
sport very cold motoring back. M had people to tea & Bridge as usual. Dined with the Parkes & played Bridge.
Rather a dull dinner, only ourselves there.

The country where we were hunting is deadly dull, low hills, hardly to be called hills, covered with stone,
no vegetation & distant views of the sea, colourless & ugly, the only colour was the clothes of the Arabs & the
trappings of the camels & donkeys, the latter have huge wool tassels on their necks done of every colour. A lot of the
men were wearing brilliant scarlet head cloths & the Shaikhs had their heavily embroidered robes & gold 'agals'.

Friday 10th [February]

Stayed late in bed, felt rather stiff from so much unaccustomed camel riding. Went down the bazaar in the morning &
got an embroidered headcloth to act as a shawl for M. Called on de Grenier drank coffee & listened to his
gramophone. Tennis & tea at the Agency. Played abominably.

Saturday 11th [February]

Sent Barrett a letter protesting against his decision to allow the Khalids to return. Took a long time writing it. Court.
Parke came in & complained about the Amir of Manama & his assistant, the Amir is a fat lazy scoundrel who was put
in when I was in India a year ago & does nothing pretending to be ill, his assistant is a really villainous looking man
with long black curls generally dressed in red bristling with swords & arms. Parke & I went to see the Shaikh about
changing them & the Shaikh, as usual, shelved the question saying that he would send Shaikh Abdulla in to discuss it -
he hates settling anything himself that will annoy anybody. Very cold day. Went to tea & Bridge with Holmes & to
dinner with the Dames. de G was there & played on the piano afterwards. Dame talked of starting a leper hospital &
asked if our Govt would assist. Just before dinner there was a fire close to the Mission, Dame & I went out to see but