Page 541 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

The Shaikh, with Mohamed, called just before we started breakfast. He stayed about an hour and a half
while I got more and more hungry, then he suggested going to see the Power House and the Sea Road but I
managed to turn him off the idea until another day. When I went out to see the Shaikh on Sunday he
showed me a family of silugi puppies which he had, the mother was Hosha London. She was born in England,
one of Major Holmes dogs, from a bitch which the Shaikh gave him from here, a nice blue colour, he said I
could have one so we chose a very nice little puppy. They were 15 days old and had their eyes open. Ours is
a darkish brown. I hope she turns out a success. Went to the Bank for Bridge and tennis at Agency in
afternoon. Abdel Rahman Zayani caught me just as we were going over to the Agency to talk about a relation
of his who is going bankrupt for Rs 80,000. The father in law of my old head clerk. These Arabs are very
queer in their money matters, they lend money without any sort of security and the borrowers seem to have
no idea of trying to pay it back. I heard lately of a man who was known to be very unsound financially, he
had been in India and travelled up on the boat, every single day he fed all the other passengers at his
expense, killing several sheep, then three days after he arrived back he gave a big dinner party and went
bankrupt for some very big sum the next day. They have no idea of economy or moderation. Some rain in
the afternoon but it cleared up in time for tennis. We dined at the Agency yesterday, I forgot to note it, a
pleasant dinner, only Parke and ourselves.

Saturday 5th April

Court. Took a long time going into the bankruptcy case. Shaikh Sulman argued that to go bankrupt is a crime
and all people who do it go to prison for six months first, I had some difficulty in persuading him that only
fraudulent ones go to jug. Went into the case of land grabbing of the Kozaibis, Sulman was very angry about
it and said they were entirely in the wrong. Didnt get up till two oclock and left a lot of cases even so.
Motored out on the Rafaa road in the afternoon and saw the road work. Met Mohamed Khalil. Parke,
Walker and Hamilton came in to call when we got back. Stormy day, some thunder but no rain though it
seemed to have rained outside.

Sunday 6th April 1930

Innumerable people came to see me in the morning, the Secretary of the Municipality, Shaikh Abdel Latif,
and various other people. I meant to go to the Customs but couldnt get away. Motored out to Rafaa in the
afternoon to see the road work, we are mending the road which goes up the hill to Rafaa through the tombs,
it is a difficult job as there is no water and the surface is very stony. Prior and his sister and Barden, the Bank
Manager, came in to dinner and we played Bridge, quite a pleasant evening.

Monday 7th [April]