Page 658 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

656

1931

[ON LEAVE FROM 9 APRIL 1931 TO 28 OCTOBER 1931]

Wednesday October 28th 1931

Arrived at Bahrain in the morning about nine oclock, had breakfast on board, the Doctor only came on board as there was
Quarantine. The Shaikh sent out his big launch to meet us with all his servants on it, very fine day and quite smooth so no
difficulty in getting into the launch. Went ashore and passed another launch with all the members of the Municipal councils
and various other people coming out to meet us. A big crowd on the pier with Shaikhs Mohamed, Abdulla and Sulman and
Rashid and a lot of lesser fry; said how do you do to them all and then went to the Joint Court to see the Shaikh, who embraced
me warmly and seemed very pleased to see me back, then to the Customs where we held a sort of reception in the de Grenier's
drawing room where all the clerks and merchants and officials came in to see us and quite a lot of the Europeans. Rather
warm, I was wearing a flannel suit but would have been better in thin clothes. It is unusually warm for this time of year. After
about an hour we motored along to the house which has been painted outside and looks very smart, all white with green
woodwork, everything in very good order and all clean and tidy. Lunched with Prior and spent most of the day unpacking and
arranging the house. Our new chairs are very nice also the little table which I bought at the Caledonian market. In the
afternoon the Kadi, Shaikh Abdel Latif, came to call and at the same time Abdel Rahman Zayani, we were at tea so they joined
us at it. As soon as the Kadi left, and I went to see him off, Zayani produced the pearl necklace which I had ordered for M. It
is a really lovely thing and worth much more than I paid for it out here, a very great success. Zayani was delighted to see how
pleased M was with it. They are such big pearls that I am afraid people who dont know will think they are Ciro pearls. After
tea motored up to the fort to see Parke, the de Greniers came later and also the Russells, from Mespers, consisting of a
youngish couple and the wife's mother. The two women are quite pleasant but I dont care for him. She is a daughter of an
Austrian who was in the service of the Persian Government before the war, but the mother is English, a very pleasant elderly
woman. Dinner at the Agency. The garden has grown amazingly, it is quite a jungle in parts and the trees will need a lot of
cutting before one can walk along the paths, but it is nice and shady and very restful to look onto green trees with the sea
beyond instead of glaring white ground, masses of birds in it and a lot of bulbuls which sing like thrushes. No flowers except
oleanders and a few gallardias. I hear that Mrs Steele, the wife of the Electrical Engineer, has already begun to be tiresome
about the house we put them in. I regret very much that he is a married man, "wives" seem to cause so many complications.
My dogs seem very well but rather thin. The English people all look very well in spite of having it very hot in September but
otherwise not a bad summer. Everybody made most flattering speeches about being glad to see us back, and I think quite a lot
of them meant it. There are far more American and Europeans here than there have ever been before, something like three
dozen at the moment, when we first came there were about 12.

Thursday 29th October

Spent most of the morning with Parke talking over things, as far as I can gather things have been going on quite well except
financially but in that respect things are very bad, we are spending every month considerably more than we get in revenue
which cant go on for ever. Endless callers came in all the time so we were rather interrupted. Jordan came round, he had been
going on the boat we arrived on but suddenly got a wire telling him to stay much to everyone's annoyance, such bathos after
saying farewell to them all and some having given farewell dinners to him. Went across to the Agency to discuss some