Page 1233 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

1231
1231
1940

Friday 10th February

Pope died.

Durbar in Law Courts building - rather a muddle. The Shaikh arrived a quarter of an hour early - yesterday
he was half an hour late, he was headed off with difficulty & kept in a side room till the Guard of Honour
arrived & then made his entrance, not looking well & a very bad cold indeed. Then we discovered that the
platform was in full sunlight - such a fuss, an umbrella was borrowed from Mrs Fisher, & some flags
obtained & draped over the front. Weightman was very late & altogether it was a trying beginning but once
started all went well, & the speeches sounded good & were all well delivered & I think received with great
interest & attention. The show took one hour. During the show a boat full of petrol drums caught fire
alongside the pier & burnt for half the day, I spent a long time on pier, both fire engines & eventually Bapco

one too, ours didn't work. Our engine crashed into Sh Sulman's car & smashed it up. A nuisance, he was on
the wrong side. Cinema pm, rotten picture, left before end & went to the Palace & watched dancing,
before dinner went round bazaar with Shaikh, sat in his car in front, he went very early so nobody was
prepared for him & no police on duty, his cold very bad. Altogether a trying day.

Saturday 11th February

Cold day, a real hurricane of a shamaal in the night. Busy morning at the Palace watching dancing & then at
the fort seeing about the sports. Lovely day, but cold. Sports in afternoon, went off very well, from 2.30 -

5.30. the men did well & there was some very good jumping & running - HH stayed nearly till the end, he
asked for the V.C. race, mounted, to be repeated. Hope next time to get more mounted turns. Dined at
Bank, Bridge. Sadler is staying with them.

Sunday 12th February

Worked in office before breakfast, then Court. Finished the prosecution evidence against Shimlan &
Chiraiwi, a long sitting, didn;t get back till well after 2 pm. It was a lively case, a good deal of shouting &
some impudence from Shimlan, an offensive person. We had a long discussion about the case & both Ali &

Abdulla showed a lot of common sense. Shamaal died down at the end of day. Went to Budeya. Dame