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1928

bargain and left his friend in the soup without his own wife or a new one. Served him right. Ahmed bin Khamis came
in full of complaints about Abdu Ali who he said was running round libelling him, he said, of Abdu Ali, "you cant
make a crooked dog's tail straight" and after all the time I spent with them trying to make a reconciliation. Its too
tiresome. Put in some more seeds in the garden and then we went for a walk through the bazaar where it was quite cool
though a horrid hot steamy day, so damp that it looks as if someone had been pouring water on the downstairs veranda.
People to tea and Bridge, everyone except the Doctor came. Very hot and sticky. We are really having very nasty
weather just now, the hot weather going on much longer than it should. In the morning I went over to see Barrett. He
had a confidential letter from Sir Lionel Haworth written just before he left Bushire having handed over to the new
Resident Sir Frederic Johnston. The new man seems to have most dangerous and unsatisfactory ideas as to policy in
the Gulf. He doesnt seem to bother about the Persian question as affecting Bahrain and even favours allowing a
Persian Consul here. It all sounds very bad, also he is on bad terms with Sir Denys Bray and is a friend of Clive, the
British Minister at Teheran, who is very pro Persian. Really the more I see of the policy of the British Government the
more it surprises me. The whole thing becomes personal, because one man dislikes another man he deliberately adopts
a different policy regardless of the effects. The Headquarters are as bad, at the moment the Foreign Office and the
India Office are absolutely at loggerheads on the Persian Question. The F.O. is all for placating Persia, at anyone's
expense, and the I.O. is, rightly, all for taking a strong line with them. Bahrain is the most important issue in the whole
affair. The worst of it is that the Shaikh is so weak. Only the other day Barrett told him that the Persians were asking
for a Consul in Bahrain, what did he think? The Shaikh replied, as usual, that he was sure that whatever the Brit: Govt:
wished would be the best, of course he should have absolutely refused to consider it. Now I shall have to ginger him
up about it. The only way is to get his brothers, Abdulla and Mohamed, to push him and force him into taking a strong
line. He really doesnt bother head about all this business which might mean his losing his throne.

Parke now thinks that he has traced the attempted murder of the Shaikh, two years ago, to Shaikh Abdulla.
Its a nasty business. I always had suspicions in that direction and so had a number of other people, Arabs, but at the
moment it would be very awkward to prove it. Abdulla is the real strong man here and he is a great help. Parke is
quite certain about it. I dont know what will happen. He has got some Baluchis in prison and that has caused a great
stir among the local Baluchis, according to the secret reports that Barrett gets, though of course such reports cant be
trusted much. Really things are very complicated just now, there are so many big things to deal with. Its a pity the
weather is so horrid.

Friday Nov: 16th

Jabr Msallem called in the morning, a big pearl man who finances about forty boats, one of the leading men in the pearl
industry. He stayed a longish time talking about the Advances for this year. He was going off to the mainland with
Shaikh Abdulla. Went down the bazaar. Had a look round and went into the meat market and told the butchers how
bad the meat is, they said they would try and give us better. Had a talk with Parke outside the Customs. Very hot and
sticky still. Abdu Ali called in the afternoon with much talk about the Kadi question. Tennis at the Agency. One of
the new Missionaries was there, an awful little worm. Bridge afterwards had de G for a partner who played
abominably and wouldnt even attend. Barrett was rather rude to Mrs B. about her play, she is hopelessly bad but its a
pity to be disagreable about it. de G. came in to dinner, insisted on sending his evening clothes and changing, so I had
to. He was quite amusing but is beginning to get a little uppish, he does so so easily. Planted some more seeds in the
morning.