Page 686 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

1932

the King of Arabia in which he mentioned the need for economy and Kanoo took the opportunity to read the Shaikh a lecture
on the subject which the Shaikh did not relish at all, he loathes the very word.

Wednesday 20th Jan 1932

Parkes left on the mail boat in the morning, he is to be back in a month. The parson from Basrah held a Communion service at
the Agency in the morning which we attended, a large fat man with quite a nice voice. Eight people attended which is more
than they had at Basra on Christmas Day. The Resident arrived in the morning, Parke had meant to have an interview with him
on board but they missed eachother and passed on the way out. The Shaikh called and I went over with him to the Agency, he
is simply devoured with curiosity to know why the Resident is going over to Hassa to visit the King, I dont know myself and
shall be interested to hear. We had our usual tennis and Bridge party, the Resident came. The Shaikh again talked about Parke
but he now speaks of it as if it happened years ago. He really is very ungrateful about it and might express more regret. I
always thought he liked him more than he seems to. Major Holmes stayed on to dinner and talked about oil politics, he thinks
the Resident is going into Hassa to try and persuade the King not to give Holmes' company a concession over there. The
Shaikh wanted the Resident to give a message to Ibn Saoud saying that he should treat his subjects in Katif and the
neighbourhood better, they have been taxed so high that they can hardly live. Holmes says that Dr Tiffany, the only spinster
here, is engaged to one of the oil drillers.

Thursday [21 January]

The Resident was not well and didnt go out, he had been coming with me to see the schools and the offices. Took the dogs out
in the car for a run and then went to tea with Holmes, quite a big party, they became very lively later on and people began
putting bits of ice down eachothers necks.

Friday [22 January]

Prior came over in the morning about some accounts. Went to the Bank and played Bridge and then did the accounts. Colonel
Dickson, the Political Agent from Kuwait, arrived by aeroplane and came to stay with us, he arrived late so we didnt play
tennis at the Agency but just went over to tea and Bridge. We had the Dames to dinner to meet Dickson. He is a great talker
and very interesting, talked most of the time about Arabs and Arab politics so Dame was a good person to have. Told us that
St John Philby is setting out on the tracks of Thomas to explore the parts of the desert which Thomas did not go to and to prove
that Thomas is wrong in many of the statements which he made. It will be amusing when they begin to spar in the papers as
they are sure to do. He discussed the big Basra murder case about which he has a lot of inside information, a man married a
girl and did not belong to her tribe so the father of the girl shot him. It was all very interesting as the papers have been full of it
lately and the people concerned are all very big Arabs, one the son of a recent Prime Minister of Iraq. King Faisal apparently
is responsible as he was begged by the big men of the tribe to stop the marriage which was against all Arab custom but he
refused to, and after being asked a second time he again refused and the man was shot. That particular family are of very noble
Arab breed and never let their women marry outside the tribe. Dickson said he had no idea why they were going over to
interview King Ibn Saoud.