Page 618 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

fine sunsets, some of them lately have been quite wonderful with palm trees silouetted against the sky.
Parke and de Grenier came in after tea. D.G. goes up to Baghdad on the boat that sails tomorrow. He was
very effusive and nearly embraced M.

Monday [8 December]

Court. Mohamed bin Ali attended. One of the new sloops arrived. The Folkstone, she came in closer than
we have ever seen a boat come before. They are of a new pattern which draw only about eleven feet of
water. Prior went out to return the Captain's call and she left again in the early afternoon. One of the Siadis,
principal in the big case in my court, is very ill so he is suddenly becoming wonderfully generous to the poor
in order to propitiate Allah, his cousin, who is the other party in the case is also doing the same in order not
to be outdone, so the public benefit. Gardened after lunch and then went over to the Agency and played
singles and had tea with Prior, then back to change and over to Muharrak to dine with Ali bin Seggar, a
Muharrak pearl merchant. I cant think why he gave a dinner party as he has sold no pearls and it is said in
the bazaar that his family have hardly enough to eat. There were about a dozen people there all local
merchants. I had a talk with Kozaibi who had heard from his brother that the Paris market is absolutely at a
standstill. Habib, one of the big buyers is almost bankrupt, and things are altogether very bad. He also talked
about the man who Ibn Saoud has sent down to Hassa to reorganise the customs and revenue. Kozaibi
dislikes him as until now he and his brothers have had everything their own way over there, now they are
treated like anyone else and made to pay usual customs etc etc. He said the last time he saw Mohamed al
Tawil, the new man, he was a prisoner in Ibn Saoud's camp, not actually in chains but decidedly a prisoner.
He had been mixed up in some rebellion against Bin Saoud. M came over to the Agency and we had a little
Bridge when we got back from the dinner party. Parke and Jordan got very excited and angry with eachother.

Tuesday 9th December

Rain, quite hard and for a long time. It did not come through our roof though as it often has before. Office in
the morning. Interviewed a man who is giving evidence against one of the Siadis about having imported a
slave from the mainland. There are quite a lot of people here who do this and the slaves are so stupid that
they never make any attempt to get away from their masters. The other day I saw a will of someone here
written only a few years ago in which he left two women slaves to his wife. M went down the bazaar. Tea at
the Mission, no tennis as it was raining. Discussed D.G.'s wedding, Dr Tiffany said she had never been a
bridesmaid and never been to a wedding, but she had been to quite a lot of funerals, she seemed to think
there was a connection. Prior came in to dinner as it was his birthday as well as mine. We opened our last
remaining bottle of champagne but it was quite bad so we couldnt drink it. The place is swimming in mud. I
have never known a place that becomes more unpleasant than this in wet weather.

Wednesday 10th December 1930

The Shaikh and Shaikh Sulman came in while we were at breakfast. They joined us and had some coffee. The
Shaikh was rather peevish about a case which we had taken, it is a big case and a complicated one and we
know privately that the Shia Kadi, Shaikh Abdulla, has taken a large sum of money in it as a bribe. Then when