Page 1290 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

1288
1288
1940

Fort, office. Hallows came over & also the RAF works & building man, also Steele. Hot day, very damp.
Went to the Musical Society concert after dinner, a pleasant programme but very few people.

Tuesday 15th August

Cooler day, a shamaal. Fort, the mare which like all the other ponies, or most of them, has got strangles, is
better, the huge swelling has burst at last, but she is very thin & won't be ready to ride for a long time.
Office. Busy morning. Saw Smith & Steele, decided to let Holloways do the bridge their own way - my
suggestion would work out more expensively than the amount we save on steelwork. Sh Abdulla came in,
really to gossip but I discussed various points with him. At the causeway in the evening for a long time with
Mohd Saleh, one big sailing boat tried to sail through, against the current, for 3/4 hour & then gave it up - it
was very strong & not much wind.

Wednesday 16th August

Suhail appeared.

Fort, office. Most of the morning in court, a lot of cases, mostly of no great importance. Went to cineam in
the evening & then had a bathe. A lot of news reels & a coloured jungle film well calculated to give any
child nightmares - people being thrown to crocodiles & earthquakes etc, yet crowds of children there.

Thursday 17th August

Fort, office. In afternoon went off in the launch to Jida island, called by local Europeans, Rock Island. A
suitable name as from the sea it looks like masses of rocks, actually there is a strip of open ground along one
side sloping to the shore & up among the cliffs there is a little plateau with a depression in the centre full of
green shrubs & plants which grow from the rain water which collects there. Sh Khalifah came with me &
then went back by launch to Budeya. We are going to send some prisoners here to cultivate the land on the
shore as we have an artesian well now. Camped in the plateau, a pleasant place with views of the brillantly
blue sea all round & the cliff tops with a sheer drop in some places down to the shore below, lots of tiny
little rocky coves with sandy beaches. The police seem to quite enjoy being there. The Shaikh's island looks
quite near. Shs A & S came in the morning. A very interested in th details of the new concession which Ibn