Page 70 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1926

The boat came in - no letters for me but mine usually come by the up mail, from Bombay. The Sheikh came in to meet
his sons off the boat. It was due at 9 am & arrived after 12 noon, as he & a large crowd completely occupied my large
office I retired to the clerks office. He brought in his smallest boy a delightful little person about 4 years old, dressed
as an absolute replica of himself, very solemn & very attractive, among the crowd an old cousin of Bin Saoud to whom
the Sheikh made a lengthy speech about me - the chief point about it being that since the arrival of the "Mustasher"
("Adviser" (me)) he, the Sheikh, had so far less work to do. The old gentleman kept up a chorus of suitable remarks,
all very complimentary, as he probably hoped for some presents from the Sheikh & knew I held the purse strings, then
he said "but how old is he, he looks very young"! They all say that - I wish I could follow the fashion & grow a beard.
All the Sheikhs came in & all their followers & relations, I went along to Daly to tackle the Budget again & stayed
there for hours & only got back to lunch at 4 oclock. Daly came round in the evening & took us a drive in a car, nice
out, very pretty, the dates are so lovely, every colour from pink, orange, purple & crimson.

Thursday [15th July]

The Sheikh came in again before his Joint Court with Daly. The two eldest boys, who returned yesterday from the
Mission School at Basra, came in to pay their respects, nice looking boys but very shy & afraid of talking English
which they really know quite well. Very busy morning, as usual crowds of people coming to see me, some are so very
persistent, they literally dog my footsteps. Went out for a drive in the evening, a round, by the Bidaga road & back by
Suk al Khamis. My photos came from Basra, not very well printed & nothing very good about them.