Page 1786 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1944

Sunday April 30th

Office, saw various people & went down to see Packer & Bill Steele. A
cigar which I smoked completely overcame me & I spent some hours lying
down feeling seasick. Most unpleasant.

Got up in the afternoon & went for a drive, taking Maxwell Darling.

Ensor show at Muharraq, went, after dinner, with Hick. Quite good in
parts.

Monday 1st May

Fort. No parade but had the men practising for sports. They seemed
quite keen on it.

Court, the Doi case again, the lady had to be fetched from Muharraq, she
conducted her case very sensibly - it is an interesting case. Took
Maxwell Darling out to Awali just to look round, he has developed a sort
of nervous trick of wriggling about, probably result of the accident.
Some Trucial Shaikhs arrived.

Tuesday 2nd May

M Darling left at 2am. I got up at 4 & went with Hick to Habara by
launch. Nice day, took 3 1/2 hours & spent some time there, walking in
heavy sand then back taking about 4 hours. Quite a pleasant trip, caught
a lot of channard. Slept a good deal of the time. Visited the Qattara
fort, a large solid building close to the old fort, this will be a
difficult problem to tackle as the Khalifah will never stomach it close
to them & A of Q wont I am sure pull it down. The city seemed more
derelict than ever, a sour dull place the only pleasant spot being the
beach where there is nice white sand. Arranged flowers, Hutchings came
in.