Page 685 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

1932

Sunday 17th Jan 1932

Called on Yusuf Kanoo in the morning and discussed with him the question of the Proclamation which we are issuing ordering
all wills to be registered with the Government and no persons to administer estates without getting permission from
Government. It will to a certain extent safeguard the rights of widows and orphans who at present are being robbed wholesale.
It is a big step in the right direction. Parke came in again when I got back and talked for some time, he wants to go down to
India at once and try and get a job there, I said I would give him a letter to John but I dont think he has a chance of getting any
work there. In the afternoon we went out for a drive and got to a village called Saar, a place I had never been to before, rather
nice country but a very bad road all little bridges across streams which were so narrow that the car nearly went over several of
them, when we got to the village we stuck in the sand and something went wrong with the battery so the car wouldnt go, but
eventually it recovered and we got home safely but very late. Quite an adventure.

Monday 18th [January]
M went out to the oil camp to play Bridge with Mrs Skinner and stayed to lunch so de Grenier came to lunch with me. We did
not mention Parke as I did not know if he had heard about it. Gardened in the afternoon and then went out for a short drive.
The de Greniers came to dinner and talked most of the time about Parke, he had heard all about it and apparently everyone else
had too.

Tuesday 19th [January]

Parke came round in the morning, with Mrs Parke who went up to see M. He has decided to go to India tomorrow and to send
her back by boat from Bombay and to go on the Delhi himself, the Government is there now and he thinks he may get some
job there though he knows nobody there except John Belgrave to whom I have given him a letter of introduction. I think he is
unwise to go off in this way. Called on the Sunni Kadis to hear what they had to say about the question of estates, they seemed
resigned to it, it will diminish their power a great deal and also their purses as they made a lot of money from such things, they
tried to persuade me to alter the new arrangement leaving the matter more in their hands but I didnt agree, we parted amiably
but rather coldly. I think they will try and make mischief. One of them is just like the picture of a sheep, wearing spectacles,
in Alice in Wonderland, and I should think he had about as much brain as a sheep. Steele came in and I talked to him for some
time, at the end he asked me if what Parke had told him was true, that he had been sacked with a few days notice and was
leaving at once, I told Steele the true facts of the case. I can see that Parke is telling everyone all sorts of untrue stories about it
all, after all he has been given eight months notice which is very generous. Dr Holmes came over in the afternoon and I told
him just what had happened about Parke in order that it would get round, gave him a lot of plants from my garden much to the
disapproval of my gardener who is very jealous and hates anyone else to have anything growing except me. A R A F chaplain
came down from Basra and had a service in the evening. M went to it after tea at the Mission, then we went to Mespers for
Bridge. Major Holmes and de Grenier nearly had a row as Holmes leant over Mrs D.G. and put his arms round her neck, D.G.
said he wouldnt allow any impertinences with his wife and went dead white and nearly knocked the table over, it caused quite
a sensation, as Holmes is getting on for sixty there didnt seem to be much harm in it, besides he meant no harm. Dined with
Major Holmes, the Parkes were there, we played Bridge but talked all through dinner about Parke and Prior's letter, another
very unpleasant evening, Mrs Parke looked very miserable and I felt very sorry for her, but he was simply angry. It has been a
great hit to his self conceit to think that we can possibly get on without him here. Y.K. looked in in the morning, he has been
very helpful about the proclamation. He was out at the Shaikh's on Saturday, the Shaikh had just had a letter from Ibn Saoud