Page 761 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

Thursday [10 November]

At the Fort doing musketry in morning & then worked in the office. Carried out a raid on a house for arak in
the morning, a very successful one. It was being made in an empty house opening out of another house
which served as a blind, we caught one man & got information on which we arrested two others, all well
known bad characters. Major Holmes came back by air from Kuwait. In the evening we had the Skinners
and Ham to dinner & played Bridge, quite a pleasant little party. They are nice & will be an acquisition
when they move into Manama from the oil camp. We find our guest rather tedious, went a drive in the
afternoon.

Friday 11th [November]

Went down the pearl market in the morning & looked at pearls. Mrs Pickering wanted to buy one or two,
they have gone up a little lately so I am glad I bought the ones I did last year. In the afternoon we went to
the Agency as usual, Prior was playing golf so we acted for him till he came back. The D.Gs and an Air Force
man called Dalton Morris came to dinner but as we were all so late & very sleepy we did not play Bridge
afterwards. Fortunately they left early.

Saturday 12th [November]

Court. In the afternoon we went for a picnic in the Agency launch round towards Sitra, but we had not time
to go to the island itself. It was very nice out on the sea, quite calm & pleasantly cool. Prior put up a very
good tea. The sunset was wonderful & looked very stormy & later on at night there were a few drops of
rain & quite a strong wind but it didnt deter me from sleeping on the veranda, though M moved into the
house. We dined at the Agency with Prior, Adam Freund was there, & played Bridge, a poor dinner & a dull
entertainment. I think Prior is beginning to feel very sad at leaving here, & no wonder, he has been here
three years.

13th Nov. Sunday

Court. Didnt go to Fort. The Police marched all round the town with the band - ! - two drummers & three
buglers, but they made a fine noise. These young blacks are born drummers as the tom tom is their own
instrument. Took the arak case in the morning & gave the men two and four months hard labour. They
deserved it & more. In the afternoon a man brought some pearls along & we spent a long time looking at
them, some quite nice ones, then Holmes sent for Mrs P & took her out to the oil camp & M & I went to see
the new Police playing football for the first time, they enjoyed it enormously & behaved just like small boys.
They are a fine lot of men, then we motored out to the oil camp & arrived after dark. The road is very bad
now as we have no money to spend on it. Skinner took us out to see the site of the third well, which is not
begun yet, & we looked at the second one where they are working now, played Bridge & motored back
after dinner; quite cold. On the way passing a wayside mosque a queer light danced across the road & into