Page 641 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

639

1931

Office, nothing of interest. Some rain. Gardened in the afternoon and wrote letters. Yusuf Kanoo came to call before dinner,
by appointment. He is supposed to be going to India on the down boat, he told me he was. He was very pleasant and quite
helpful. I wanted to talk to him about the question of Wakfs, he seemed to have very sound ideas about the subject and said it
was a scandal that there was no proper control. He offered to help in a movement about them. He said he had wired to his
friends in Bombay to meet my "family" and they had passed in launches at sea as the boat had not been up to time or
something. Prior sent me a draft of a letter which he has written to the P.R. about the Khalifah allowances, after dinner I went
across and had a talk with him about it and made a few alterations in it. Revington was there. Stayed a little while listening to
his gramaphone and then came back and wrote a few more letters. I sent a sketch and copy of the inscription on the Greek vase
to Lady Flinders Petrie, as I have met her and the old man is an expert on such things.

Sunday [15 February]

Worked at the proclamations all the morning, I had wanted to finish the job during Ramadan but I shall not have time, its a
much bigger thing than I expected it to be. Gardened in the afternoon and Parke came in to tea, a little rain in the evening.
Very dull day.

Monday [16 February]

Most of the morning at Proclamations. Dame wrote a long letter about the danger of mosquitoes from the flooded ground of
Kozaibis, I then drafted a really "snorter" to the Biladya on the subject. The whole business is a bad show, just because it is
Kozaibi's ground they wont take any firm measures. The water is now right across the road which used to be well above the
low ground on both sides of it and it is full of mosquitoe larvae. In the evening dame sent me a large jar full of them just
collected from the side of the road. Played golf with Prior, played badly at first but then better. He came in to tea with me, I
find he knows a certain Mrs Chetwynd who was wife of a man in the F.D.A., a most notorious lady who used to be on the stage
and then vamped young men at Al Arish. Mrs Kennett loathed her. The Shia Kadi, Abdulla, called after dinner and stayed a
very long time, I was glad he had not come before dinner. He was on the whole very interesting and talked about the intense
poverty here at present and as far as I can see there is no chance of its getting better till things change in Europe. He is
interesting and tells me bits of Mohamedan Law and customs which I did not know before. He said when he left if every time
I saw him I learnt something new about Shia law I would soon become a Kadi. He came alone. Very fine day and for once in
a way no rain. The doctor came in after lunch to talk about the mosquitoe question, we sat in the garden and he stayed a long
time. He has sent me a lot of lettuce seedlings which are doing well. Quite a change to have a really fine day. D.G. is
tremendously talkative about a buoy which he claims to have salvaged from the sea, it is our red one which got adrift. He
keeps on telling me that he is NOT claiming a reward for himself but is claiming it for his men. They offered Rs 500/-.

Tuesday 17th [February]

Wire arrived yesterday from Brighton. Got a letter from Teviot Kerr saying one Commander Keeley was coming to Bahrain
on the A.P.O.C. new boat, a little boat smaller than their other tanker. He came along to call, quite a decent fellow though not
high class, used to be in the Navy, he is their Marine Superintendent at Abadan. He came to talk about a request of the Biladya
that there should be a petrol pump here. I took him along to D.G. to talk about some harbour business. D.G. was very snappy