Page 83 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

81

1926

Spent the whole morning in the Levy Corps taking down all the evidence about the shooting. The accused made no
attempt to deny it & said he did it because the Subadar had reduced him from Nack to Sepoy. He said he didnt mean to
get Daly with a shot, but he did mean to get him with his bayonet as Daly called out "catch him". The Guard behaved
very badly, running away as soon as they heard shots, & they were the only people who were armed. Daly has cabled
for a cruiser as it appears that there is more in it than meets the eye. The Mullah, who comes from Russian Persian
frontier, appears to be at the bottom of it, a nasty fanatical looking fellow with green eyes, rather like a bad edition of a
religious picture, long hair & beard & robes. The accused had a revolver & the same bullets were the ones used in the
police shooting case. The men are quite quiet.

After tea we went over to Sitra island, in a joliboat. The wind dropped & the tide was against us so we didnt arrive till
8 pm, then had to walk to the Levy port which I looked at, & found extremely sloppy & in bad order. Stayed there
some time & then returned to the boat, by which time it was quite dark. The tide was with us but no wind, & we ran
aground. Really very awkward, spent a long time trying to push off the boat & then waded ashore, they carried M, but
it was quite shallow. Arrived at a village & borrowed a donkey from an old woman, who thought we were thieves,
then with the narkhuda & the L/C orderly who I had brought, fortunately, we went back to Manama, M riding the
donkey & I walking - about 5 miles. Got back at 12.30 & found a perfectly good dinner ready waiting for us. Really
these native servants are surprising when there is an emergency. A hot damp night. Gave M the pearl which I bought
for her birthday.

Saturday 7th [August]