Page 589 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

seal often left his possession for a long time at a time and he more or less insinuated that his favourite wife
had stolen it from him and given it to the other man to seal the papers. A difficult case as if we admit the
invality of his signature all documents since he became blind are liable to be queried. Had a long talk to the
Shaikh about various things, he was very disturbed to hear James was ill and at once said he was coming to
see him, he said that though not a doctor he had had many children, over a dozen one way and another, and
knew a great deal about them. He suggested branding him with a hot iron, the favourite Arab cure for all ills,
but said doubtless his mother would not like this. He came down in the afternoon and met the Sunni Kadi
who was also calling on me. He came in and saw James who was asleep and recited a lot of prayers over him,
James woke up and seemed rather to resent this, it reminded me of a would be magician at a bazaar or a
man on a boat at Port Said doing conjuring tricks. However he meant it in the kindest spirit. Pack came to
call as he was going and we took him out for a drive in the car. Altogether rather a full day. Saw a lot of
people in the office in the morning. Went in to Packs house on the way back, he was very pleasant and
interesting, so nice to see someone new and to my mind a pleasant change to meet a foreigner. Though a
pronounced Jew he is a very nice man.

Thursday 4th September

A wire from de Grenier to say he arrived early in October. Had a meeting of the electric committee of the
Manama Municipal council and went over all the accounts for the year and also the capital outlay. They
were all young men and very intelligent. Put up to them a scheme of sort of subsidising wiring and
recovering the money and profit by charging a higher rate. The Shaikh came down in the afternoon again
about an affair at Muharrak between some Arabs and one of old Isa's servants. Motored out along the Rafaa
road. Cooler day and nice in the evening but the nights are damp lately. James better in the day but had
fever again in the evening.

Friday 5th September 1930

Bank in morning, cant remember what I did in the afternoon. Abdel Latif al Materi called. He is a very rich
merchant who owns a lot of property in Basra and Kuwait, he is really a millionaire, the richest man in the
Gulf. He started life as an ordinary diver and can hardly read and write. He came here to stay with Yusuf
Kanoo and to buy pearls, though he told me that he had only come to see his friends. He is a fine looking old
man with a big white beard and a merry expression. We talked about politics in Irak and he said that the
people were very angry with the Government for putting up the taxes but when they complained to the
English they said, "it is your own Arab Government who has done this and we cant interfere" the Arab
Government then said, it is the fault of the English who insist on us employing so many highly paid Advisers
and other English officials. He didnt seem to care much about it himself and was very amusing on the
subject. Motored in the afternoon.