Page 669 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

667

1931

Municipal council meeting in Manama, quite a bright meeting, agreed to deport all the foreign "ladies of the town", we do it at
intervals, there will be a great uproar about it as usual, the members were so terribly smug about it especially Shaikh Mohamed
who pretended that such goings on didnt exist, Prior rather shocked them by saying that the trade should be for local ladies
only. Morland went out to the oil field and we thought he would lose the boat but he returned in time. Naiyan, my head clerk,
went on leave, a great nuisance for me. Motored out to Mohamed Yatim's garden before tea and invited Prior to dinner. Nice
cool day again and very pleasant.

Wednesday [2 December]
Office, a lot of people to see. In the afternoon we had our usual At Home. Went along to see the Shaikh at the Joint Court in
the morning but didnt stay there long. We had some quite good tennis at first but as usual it rather went to pieces when the
Mission arrived.

Thursday 3rd December

Court. In the afternoon we went for a short drive and then to tea with Major Holmes, quite a good party and a very good tea
with excellent scones made by his cook, he has the best cook in Bahrain which is perhaps not saying very much! Played
Bridge. Some of the R.A.F. men came in later on from the flying boat which is here, they have been coming down fairly often
lately but we see nothing of them. Mrs Skinner from the oil field was at tea, a very nice woman, well dressed with hair the
colour of marmalade, real. We got very late there and then hurried back to change before going out to dinner with the Steeles.
Had quite a pleasant evening, only the de Greniers were there besides ourselves, we didnt play Bridge but just sat and talked.
Mrs Steele seemed slightly less full of complaints than before and wore quite a pretty dress. Much talk about the picnic
tomorrow which rather bores me. Heard that there are locusts at the other end of the island.

Friday December 4th

A terrific swarm of locusts arrived before breakfast, they literally darkened the sun, I have never seen so many. I was very
worried about the garden but sent for a swarm of small boys from the houses near who ran about beating tins and waving
branches and thanks to them and to several bonfires in corners of the garden I kept them off the plants, they came over in huge
crowds but didnt seem inclined to settle anywhere, later on they began to fly higher, the people say that when the sun is hot
they go high and only come down when the sun is low. They are beastly things and can do terrific damage. Started off in the
car for the "picnic treasure hunt" at about ten and found all the white population assembled in cars in the square near the
Mission church, we had to wait about an hour for Prior who had gone out for a sail and got very late, eventually we arrived and
were given clues and started off. I had Mrs Steele in my car and all the other people were divided up, this caused some
annoyance as everyone seemed to wish to be with someone else. It was quite amusing, we motored from place to place and
looked for clues and then went on to the next place and finally arrived at the Portuguese Fort where we had a very good lunch.
Two of the oil men were there, one a shade the worse for drink. It was a lovely day and fairly cool. After lunch we came
home and later on went over to the Agency for tennis tea and Bridge. Really a very pleasant entertainment. The feature of the
picnic was a huge cold ham, tinned I think, provided by Major Holmes. Afterwards we went to the Agency as usual for tea and
tennis. I heard that one of the American drillers from the oil place was in the pearl market very drunk surrounded by a large