Page 1258 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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Fort, busy arranging the village, trees etc for the show. Hot day, first day this year that has been at all hot.
Office. HH & Shaikhs came in, talked entirely about royal visit - & Zabara. All much upset because Abdulla

is said to be building at Zabara. Wrote a protest - of no use. Went to Customs, saw Packer & discussed
decorations in Customs Square. Steele came in, discussed visit - I shall be glad when it is all over.
Thornburg & Fred Davies came in after lunch & showed me a wire re oil negotiation results - BG approve of
HH's wish to give concession to Americans. Don't know when we shall hear officially. Tennis & Bridge,
wireless news about military service measures.

HH is going to the mainland for one night - invited me to go with him but I got off under plea of much work -
quite true too.

Thursday 27th April

Fort, painted scenery for an hour, great fun but a messy job. It looks quite effective. I should have had a
carefully coloured sketch of the whole thing before we started on it. Remember next time. Office, Shaikhs
came in as usual & stayed a long time, discussing visit as usual & also international situation. Sh M very
pleased about military service measure in England. Did some more painting in the afternoon.

Dinner at Phillips & then to a dance at the club, sat outside on the new open air terrace, very pleasant, I

didn't dance much.

Friday 28th April

HW came over after breakfast & we went up to see the new stairs at the Palace and then to the Fort to
consider grand stand & seating arrangements, all very complicated. On the way back went on to the pier
which is getting on well, they are working on the last section before the cross piece, then to the Agency
where we stayed some time. Cinema in afternoon & tea with the Phillips - heard (badly) Hitler's speech
which didn't seem very alarming. Quite a hot day, summer has now begun. Heard that the Amir Faisal is
coming here, still another addition to the party. Mercifully free from Shaikhs, lately they have taken hours

of time very day.

Had a rehersal of the tattoo in the evening, after dinner, the Furhers came in to dine first. It went off fairly
well but we had to repeat some of it several times. Some unrehearsed bits were very good.