Page 471 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1929

is the coolest place. He really loathes the Arabs and the Shaikhs, he says that the Khalifa really consider that a Bahrani
is worth less than a dog and in the old days they showed it by oppressing them and shooting them and murdering them.
He was very interesting on the subject of the various shaikhs, he thinks Abdulla is the best of them, if he was not so
bad morally, and then Sulman and then Mohamed. The last is notoriously mean. He stayed too late for me to go for a
bathe.

Tuesday [20 August]

Meeting of Muharrak Biladya, a short dull meeting as most of the members were out diving. Went along to the
Customs when I came back. Various people came in. Too hot to sleep in the afternoon, I have rarely known it so
damp. Kozaibi and Habib came to call, Habib is paying 2 lacs for a pearl that K has bought from K Jabr bi Msallem. It
is said to be a record price the most ever paid before is one lac and thirty five thousand rupees. A lac is about seven
thousand five hundred pounds. Went out to dinner with the Shaikh and on the way went out to see the scene of a
crime, someone stabbed one of the Shaikh's beastly camels with a knife and damaged it badly. I never feel sympathetic
about the camels as they are a source of trouble and a waste of good money. Old Shaikh Rashid bin Mohamed was at
dinner and Sulman and Mubarak, also that foul person Ibrahaim bin Khalid who we recently tried and found guilty of
instigating the attack on the Shaikh. It really is apalling the way he lets the fellow go near him. Poor dinner as usual.
Bathed in Idari on the way back. The roads are getting very bad again. The Shaikh talked about the electric light, old
Rashid said that if the public had anything to do in it it would be a failure. I agreed.

Wednesday 22nd August 1929 [21]

Office in the morning. Not much to do, there is not as much work just now as there was some time back. Tennis and
Bridge at Mespers and then dined with D.G. A much better dinner than usual. After dinner we went out to Idari to
bathe with the Strakers and Barden and Bienenfeld. Full moon, lovely night. Mrs Straker bathed, she knows that it is
not approved of. She cant swim but wallows about on the edge.

Thursday [22 August]

A meeting in the morning of The Shaikh, Abdulla Sulman and Mohamed to discuss a letter from Prior saying that
Barrett has written to him on the subject of the increase in the Civil List. The Shaikh looked rather cross about it and
Mohamed squealed a great deal and was very objectionable and excited and interpreted everything in the wrong sense.
He really is a most poisonous little man. Much talk to no effect and then Abdulla said there seemed no point in going
on as nobody would keep to the subject so he went. Mohamed had a case in the Court for a few rupees over which he
became completly hysterical. Really quite awkward for Sulman and I who tried to quiet him but couldnt. If there is
ever any question of money he goes on like a madman. One remark in the letter was that there should be a check on
the civil list and it ought not to increase as people married and had children, Mohamed wished to make out that the
letter meant that the Royal Family should practise birth control. They were all terribly shocked at the idea, except
Abdulla who grinned. The Shaikh as usual went off at an angle and talked long and loudly about things that had no
bearing on the subject, he is so innacurate too when he does this. Went out to Gezireh in the afternoon with Straker.
Sent the dogs and our kit ahead in a launch and then drove to Budeya by car. Got there at about six and went out to the
island by launch. Quite rough but didnt mind it. I took Saleh and the black slave boy Hilal who seemed to long to