Page 637 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

635

1931

very well paid and had just done nothing, or worse than that. I asked if he was going to A.P.O.C. and the P.R. said he thought
it most unlikely. He became quite violent about it and said he had no time for these would be Arabian explorers and would
never have anything to do with one again. All of which was very amusing and interesting. He said Hitchcock was having a
most difficult time and they simply had not the money to pay the salaries. Thomas left a few thousand rupees in the Treasury
and bills amounting to a lac or so and everything in terrible state of chaos. I have never seen the Resident so angry. He said
that he was going down to Muscat as soon as he got back to Bushire to look into things, and they would need a lot of looking
into. Altogether he was very pleasant, he talked about the Civil list and asked my ideas about it, I said all of it was too high
except The Shaikh himself who did not get enough, he said he would talk to him about it. Stayed there some time talking to
Alban and Lascelles and the two captains of the sloops, the new one is called Mgrath, a funny looking fellow with a ginger
beard and very blue eyes, very quiet. Startin was there and I found him very pleasant and quite amusing. Lascelles is a rather
lacadasical young man, relation of Princess Mary's husband and very like him with a large sloppy moustache but said to be
very brilliant. He was wonderfully well informed about Bahrain and about me too. I liked him but many would not. Alban
came across for a while and looked at my garden. Lascelles talked about Mrs Spence who he finds very comic. I gather that
she is the leading lady in amateur theatricals in Teheran and they are always acting there, Spence takes very much a back seat
and is drinking very hard. She is going home this summer. Parke came to lunch, had a most interesting conversation with
Symons about Todd. There was evidently a lot in Parke's theory about "another man". Symons had never met him but said he
was a most undesirable fellow. Shaikh Abdulla came in after lunch and waited till Shaikh Hamed came, with Sulman, then we
all went to the Agency to call. The whole party were there. The P.R. drew the Shaikh aside and asked me to engage the others
in conversation, so difficult being suddenly told to converse, while he talked about money. The Shaikh looked very ill and was
most uncomfortable about the money question. I didnt hear much of it. Heavy rain again, dinner party at Agency, only men,
sat next to Resident. He goes home in June for 3 months. Played Bridge.

Thursday [5 February]

Symons is very pleased with the new Quarantine which he went across to see yesterday, he says its one of the best he has seen.
Quite a busy morning in the office. They had a lunch party at the Agency, D.Gs and some Mission and Parke was asked but
was ill so didnt go. He had a tummy upset from eating out of dirty cooking pots, is said to have all his food cooked on the
mens cooking pots in the prison kitchen.

Went over after lunch and took Alban and Symons and Lascelles out for a drive, to Idari and the tombs. It was
very wet and very skiddy but we got there and back alright. Prior had his at home instead of on Friday, didnt play tennis as it
looked so rainy and just after we got there it started to pour again. There has been a lot of rain this year. Shaikh Mohamed
came round in the morning in a fury because he had not been to call with the others at the Agency yesterday. The Shaikh sent
a message which he didnt get, he evidently thought that he had been left out on purpose, he was simply awful and nearly cried.
The only subject that seemed to interest him was illnesses so we talked of them. He stayed a long time till time to go over
there. Prior lately wrote a rude letter about him to the Shaikh which he must have heard of or seen. The Resident and his party
went off at six oclock, going back to Bushire. He told me that they heard that Major Holmes was in Baghdad a few days ago,
he, the Resident, had been there at the time but had not actually met him. Alban told me that when and if the Residency comes
here the idea would be to build the Residency over on Muharrak on the sea shore. Quite a good plan, at all events out of the
way. They are coming down again in May. The Resident talked about the articles about him in the Persian press and said
couldnt I find out who wrote them, he places quite unnecessary importance on them. I told him that they often wrote very rude
remarks about me and that I kept a press cutting book of them in the office and enjoyed looking at them. He seemed surprised.
Lascelles also talked about them and said that they had complained to the Persian Government about them and the P.M. had
apologised and said he was very sorry, what a fuss about nothing. Ali bin Seggar has had a stroke, I am very sorry, he has lost