Page 485 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

483

1929

Monday 7th [October]

Court. Shaikh Sulman and I had one of the Shaikh's sons up on the mat for running over a child and hurting her foot
and driving without a licence. Sulman was very good and gave him a real telling off, I left it mostly to him. The son is
an awful creature and not quite all there. Out of the eight sons three are quite useless. The rest are mostly terribly
spoilt. The Shaikh cant keep them in order and it is notorious that they all do just as they like with no fear of the
consequences. Planted seeds in the afternoon in the garden, they had tennis at the Mission but I didnt go as I wanted to
get the seeds in. Khalil Moayad came to call in the evening. He is a pearl and wood merchant, a sulky looking fellow
but one of the people who have more ideas and sense than most here. He makes people very angry with him for his
downright remarks on the Biladya. He had quite a lot to say, suggested that we should advertise Bahrain more and
advertise the pearls and try and get more foreigners to come here to buy, also had ideas of making a company for
dealing in pearls, in which the Government should share, talked of agriculture and the sea road to Muharrak, really
quite interesting. Ali bin Hussein came later, very annoyed that I had received the other fellow. They are so funny,
quite jealous of eachother. Pleasant cool day, lately it has been really very nice.

Tuesday [8 October]

Didnt go to the Biladya meeting as I knew there was a dull programme. Ahmed bin Khamis came to see me, nowadays
he always becomes tearful. I am sorry for the old man, he has been very badly treated by various people and is having
a very poor time now. Got a lot of letters written in the morning. Dull day. Dined with D.G. Ben Simon was there
and we had some quite good Bridge. Jordan and D.G. are on very bad terms snapping at eachother all the time. The
wireless was wonderful, he has the loud speaker working now.

Wednesday [9 October]

Had the Amir of Muharrak in and gave him a telling off, he is a fat useless one eyed rascal who never does any work
and is said to drink, I told him that unless he discovered some places where they make liquor we should believe that he
was in the game himself. He used to be Amir of Manama but I turned him out. Got a letter from the Shia school
committee informing me that they didnt consider it necessary to have an Inspector of Schools, great impudence. Sent
for Abdu Ali and Seyed Ahmed and had a talk with them and told them what I thought about it. Arranged to have
another meeting to discuss it. There is a new murder case, the men accused are one of Mespers naturs and his brother.
They murdered the wife of the natur apparently as she bossed the house and they were afraid of her and tired of her. I
cant make out why the husband didnt just divorce her which he could have done easily. I know the man quite well, he
carries all the letters from Mespers, he always seemed a most decent old fellow. The brother has confessed but the
natur denies it. They killed the woman by throttling her with a rope, while one of them held a cloth over her mouth, in
a hut within a few feet of other people in the middle of the day. Its an interesting case, it will be held at the Agency as
they are Persians. Haji Sulman came in the evening to tell me that the brother had confessed and I sent for the doctor
to hear. The ghee merchants came to see me. We have now forbidden the import of all artificial ghee, margarine etc
etc. I think it is absurd but the public want this as they say people mix it and sell a mixture as the pure thing at the dear
price. The controversy has been going on for two years. Tennis at Mespers, rather late as Abdulla bin Jabr came to see
me just when I was leaving. At Mespers Pack and Bienenfeld told me that they had found a case of a man having
imported a cultured pearl, it is a most important thing to prevent this as being terribly damaging to the pearl trade. One