Page 680 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1932

seemed a very colourless young man with nothing to say for himself so I expect he will do well in the Diplomatic service. He knew two of
the Butlers, the one in Japan and the one in the Sudan. Went into the Agency for tea and later went there to dinner, the Parkes and the de
Greniers were there and the captain of the sloop, quite an amusing evening, after dinner we danced and kept it up till past midnight. M wore
her black velvet dress and diamonds being an official party, tail coat, white waistcoat and medals, the others were all in mess kit and it
looked really very gay.

Monday 4th Jan 1932

Court, as Ramadan is very near we are very busy. M went out to the sloop in the morning with the others who all seemed able
to leave their jobs to drink cocktails on board. After the court I translated into English the speech which I wrote on behalf of
the Shaikh for the Durbar in the afternoon. Went up to the Palace quite early dressed in morning coat, spats etc, London
clothes in fact. The show went off quite well but there were one or two slips. The Shaikh was in a very bad temper, probably
tried by his guest the Shaikh of Kuwait, owing to an oversight there was nobody at the entrance to meet the Resident and his
staff, and then at the beginning of the show there was a terrible pause before the Shaikh's scarlet dressed attendants brought in
the coffee. I only arranged for four speeches and to my surprise three other people got up and made speeches which rather
upset the programme. There were about 250 people in the room with the personages seated on a dais at the end, the Shaikh and
the resident on a sofa in the centre flanked by me and the Shaikh of Kuwait and then Prior, Baggalay and Shaikhs Abdulla,
Sulman and Mohamed's son. The European contingent looked extremly badly turned out, for some reason none of the women
wore their best frocks, I cant think why. The speeches with the exception of the Residents one and the one I composed for the
Government, were as usual very dull and rather a mutual admiration touch about them, flattering remarks about all the people
one after the other. After the show I came back and changed and then went over to the Agency and had a long talk with the
Resident, we had some tea in the middle and then got down to it again and continued till nearly time to dress. He is very
pleasant and sensible and talks very openly about things, not like some Residents as if one was hardly suitable to discuss things
with. After dinner we went across to the Agency again and danced as they were having another dinner party, Holmes, the
Skinners and others, but it was not such an amusing show as the night before and rather hung fire. Since the dinner on New
Years Eve all the women are so very careful not to drink cocktails, its quite comic to see it.

Tuesday 5th Jan. 1932

Got up rather early and went over to the Agency for breakfast, discussed with Prior and the Resident some questions about the
land tenure by the ruling family, it is really a species of feudal rights very similar to the old ideas in England. After breakfast
we motored out to the oil camp, as we passed Sakhrir half a dozen cars with the Shaikh's party came out and joined us. We
stayed there a long time and the Resident looked all over the place and was apparently very interested. I spent most of the time
with Lowenfells, the accountant, rather a nice young American who looks very like Ronald Coleman the cinema star. Then we
motored back to the Shaikh's house for lunch. Before and after lunch I sat next to the Shaikh of Kuwait so had an opportunity
of making his acquaintance. He is quite a presentable looking man and I should imagine far more intelligent than the average
Arab, but like all of them very conceited. I didnt care for him, he took every opportunity of trying to show how advanced and
clever he was in comparison to Shaikh Hamed, making remarks to me all the time that were disparaging to the Shaikh. Holmes
was with us but no other Europeans. After lunch the Resident and Prior and I and the Shaikh adjourned to another room and
we had a long discussion about the business of land tenure finally inviting Shaikh Abdulla and Shaikh Sulman to come in and
join the discussion, which they did. The feeling of the Khalifah is that they dont mind anything except that the Baharna should