Page 1165 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1940

Eid day, spent most of the morning paying calls in the town, as usual. Kanoo, Kozaibi, Abdu Ali & the old
Kadi, the last lives in rather a nice house built in Iraqi style. Heard no news. In the afternoon there was a
terrific rain storm & the whole place flooded - the Court looks like a lake. Went to call on the Shaikh, he
was very late arriving, & very few people called, owing to the weather. The road up to the palace was
mostly under water. Spoke to Sh Abdulla about the young schoolmaster in Muharraq, decided that he
should resign. He got into trouble with a young woman & so we can't keep him on as a teacher - a great
pity. Heavy rain most of the afternoon. People came in to Bridge, three tables. There was to have been a
tennis match at the camp but of course they couldn't play & three cars with people going out to it got stuck

in the mud & rain on the way out. Very poor bridge. I hear there have been two more motor accidents - it
is becoming very serious, the sudden tremendous increase in motor traffic is really very dangerous & our
roads are not made for that sort of thing. A fine night after the rain. I am building an addition to the
veranda, a sort of porte cochere (?) over the north entrance, it will be nice in the summer.

Thursday 5th March

Went over to Muharraq to pay Eid calls as usual, called on Shaikhs Mohammed, Abdulla & Rashid. Sulman
was not there, very few people about & a lot of mud everywhere. No news of interest. Sh Rashid talked a
lot about the Shaikh's money affairs & implied that everyone robbed him - quite true but I have not the

time to deal with them properly. Loudon, the engineer from Basrah, arrived by air, a very heavy dull fellow
but I should imagine quite good at his job. He went off with Mohammed Khalil after lunch & stayed out on
the causeway till tea time. After an early dinner we went out to the movies at the cinema, the road was
greasy after the heavy rain on top of the oil which was recently put down. A poor film, I don't think
anybody liked it much. I am sending Atik out to the school as a natur, he no longer has any work to do in
the house & I don't want to raise his pay as we don't need so many servants now.

Friday 6th March

Late morning. Fine cold day, it is very pleasant weather just now. Loudon spent all all the morning & all the
afternoon on the causeway watching the tides & taking measurements ! His idea is that it would be best to
close the channel altogether. M & I went down the bazaar in the morning to get some photos which I had
printed & in the afternoon we went out to the Jebel to see a base ball match between the camp & the
refinery - to my mind it is a totten game, a glorified form of rounders. The players shouted & argued all the