Page 656 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

654

1931

relief comes, quite presentable, very tall indeed and very young, only been out a few months and I should think just left school.
His name is Holmes.

Wednesday 1st April 1931

Very busy morning in the office, lots of people came in about various things all wanting me to settle their business before I go.
Went back to the office in the afternoon and had one Mullah Hassan come and see me with a long copy out of some old Arab
history books about Bahrain, very interesting, then Barden came and we went out to Senian, he always seems to take an
interest in gardens etc so I thought he might like to see what we were doing there. Later on, after I came back, Seyd Saddiq
came in, he has got a very good job as Consul of Kandahar on pay of Rs 1100- a month and he is supposed to be there on the
7th, to go by air, but though a flying boat arrived here today it had no news about his trip. He seemed very agitated about it
and said how awkward it was having to leave his large family to follow him by themselves. Went to the Fort and played
Bridge, Walker and Barden and the new Mespers man were there, he is a nice young fellow but very young, a gentleman and
not long left school I think, he is taller than me and very lanky.

Thursday [2 April]

The Shaikh sent a message to say he was coming in early, when I got to the office at half past seven I found Mohamed and
Abdulla just arrived. The Shaikh came later and we all went up to the drawing room which looked very bare and discussed the
new Budget which they seemed to approve of very much, especially as I pointed out that the expenditure was two lacs lower
than last year. Mohamed made rather a wail about the extra allowances being cut off but the others did not, the Shaikh said
that the increase in Khanchia was to start next month, quite a good thing so I am going to issue a proclamation. They stayed
till ten oclock then I came back to breakfast and then went across for the court. We left off fairly early as Sulman was not
feeling well. In the afternoon I went out for a bit in the car with Siwa and then called for Parke and we went to the D.Gs to
play Bridge, she had been ill again and Tiffany was there but she appeared and seemed quite bright and played with us, Barden
and Parke were the others. I have allowed D.G. to make a little office on the corner of his veranda and to take over the present
office as a drawing room, as they have a friend coming out this month they need a spare room, its a bad time to come for a visit
to Bahrain. Did well at Bridge, last month I was eight rupees down, the first time for a long while.

Friday [3 April]

Spent a long time in the house doing a final tidying up and going over papers. Then to the Bank for Bridge. A stuffy dull day,
not pleasant. Asked the people who were at the Bank to come to tennis, we had some quite good games and all the pleasanter
for the Mission not being there, it began to rain while we were playing so we stopped rather early and had tea and then played
Bridge, two fours. I played with Barden against Jordan and Dr Holmes, the latter two went down 1000 points on one hand, a
redouble of Jordan's, I have never known such an amount before in one hand. Parke stayed on and had dinner with me. There
was an eclypse of the moon last night and all the Arabs got up and made a terrible row praying and processing round the town,
I couldnt imagine what the noise was about. They apparently knew it was coming before hand. Warm day, very stormy
looking.