Page 699 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

697

1932

Court. Gardened in afternoon, the hyacinths I brought from England are doing very well in the garden far better than
the ones in pots. In the afternoon we went out with Holmes to show him the place where we lost one of our boring
tools, he said his people might get it out for us. Then we went back to his house for tea and stayed on to play Bridge
with Russell who came in and had dinner with him. Holmes talked about the oil and showed us a bottle of oil which
they got from the well, there was no doubt about its being oil, it burnt splendidly and smelt just like petrol. They got it
at 1640 feet down. He now talks as if it was a certainty that they will get the oil, if so all our financial troubles are
finished and we shall be able to run things as we used to without worrying about money. He now talks of putting up a
small refinery here to supply the local markets and talked about what part of the island he wants to put it on. It is really
very good news, though I am inclined to think that in most things Holmes is inclined to be a bit of an optimist.

Tuesday [1 March]

Shaikh Sulman came in before I went to the Municipal Council to talk about some business of his, also Rashid bin
Mohamed who is always pestering me about some business of his father's. Quite a good meeting, we spent most of the
time going over a scheme for a telephone service which Steele has prepared, he was at the meeting himself to explain
it, they are very keen on having one over to Muharrak and it certainly would be a good plan. Parke came round in the
morning in a great fuss because one of the Police who has been sacked put in a claim against the Superintendent at the
Agency. It is well known that the Superintendent has been pinching money from the Police for a long time so I was
rather glad to have a chance to tackle him, he returns from India in the next boat. Tennis and tea at the Mission. Very
unpleasant, there was a shamaal blowing and sand all over the place which got in my eye. Afterwards we went to the
de Greniers and played Bridge. Terry from the ship was there and played the piano which I liked. de Grenier is
becoming more and more pompous, he has one of those fat sticky voices which sound as if the person had swallowed a
lot of suet and when he laughs he seems to laugh from the depths of his stomach. I think she finds him very trying at
times.

Wednesday 2nd March 1932

Went down to the Joint Court. The Commander of the Survey ship, H.M.S. Ormonde, called on the Shaikh in the
court, a dull young man with no appearance, by name Fryer. The Shaikh was very bored by him especially as owing to
a mix up the coffee did not arrive for nearly half an hour so all the time polite conversation had to be maintained. As
usual the Shaikh got onto the subject of Glasgow and the Forth Bridge which he always talks about to the Navy. He
went there when he was in England. I get a little tired of hearing him on the same subject so often, and he must get still
more tired of talking about it. Then we went along to the Agency to return the call as fortunately the weather was too
bad to allow any calls on board the ship. The Captain showed the Shaikh some very complicated survey instruments
which did not interest him in the least. As usual when he left the Shaikh was surrounded by a mob of people wanting
to talk about their cases or business, most of them he passed on to me. He came to the office for some time and then
went home, I had quite a heated argument with him about some cases. Homes came round in the morning to borrow
some maps. In the afternoon we had our usual tennis and Bridge party.

Thursday [3 March]