Page 718 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

716

1932

When I got home I found Mrs Holmes in the garden so she stayed some time sitting talking. After dinner I went across
to the Agency to have a talk about money affairs and stayed till quite late. I get very bored with Seyed Ahmed who
talks so incessantly of the previous greatness of his family in Bahrain, every time he adds on a lac to the amount that he
says they used to trade in.

Monday [2 May]

Very heavy rain last night and a violent thunder storm, it did a lot of harm in the garden as again it dashed down so
hard that it threw the sand from the paths onto the beds and the salt killed the plants along the edge, I shall have to
make some protection against this next year. Court, got done very early as so many people seemed to be out diving for
the Khanchieh. Welsh came in, he told me that the P.R. was coming down on the mail and going on to the Oman coast
by air. Talked about cement, the R.A.F. paid us back some that we lent them but it was very dud stuff and mostly
broken. The Shaikh came in the afternoon and then we went across to the Agency to attend a party that Prior gave to
celebrate Holmes having got an extension, a "garden party". It was an awful show. The Shaikh was extremly bored by
it all having come in from Rumaitha where he is hunting, he constantly said how far off it was and by the end of the
afternoon it had become fifty miles - starting at twenty - all the white people were there and most of the Arabs as well
as the Goanese and the head people from the offices. Tea was to have been on the tennis court but it looked so stormy
that they moved the tables up to the house, in the hall, there was much difficulty about where people should sit, the
Shaikhs and some of the Arabs firmly sat down in the drawing room and the others in the passage and all the English
and Americans went into the dining room. I sat in the hall and talked to the Arabs, it was a most awkward party and
nobody enjoyed it, they left in a bunch suddenly, we stayed on for some time after the Arabs had gone. It rained out in
the country but hardly at all in Manama though there was a lot of lightening. It was very hot and stuffy in the evening.
Mrs Holmes goes tomorrow. Got a reply about my suggestion of adding the 15% luxury tax onto the Khanchieh.
Agency does not approve of it as it is considered that it would be just the same as a customs tax which is true. Dr
Tiffany and Haenggi were there, I hear they have taken the top floor above Kanoo's motor shop.

Tuesday [3 May]

No Muharraq Biladya so worked in the office, very busy at the annual report and accounts, we shall end up the year
with about 10,000/- and the Reserve, nothing else, still it might be worse. I am trying to make the Budget for exactly
the revenue that we actually got this year, not more, so that any additional taxation will be to the good, but it is difficult
to manage it. The P.R. came on the mail but left almost at once by air, I didnt speak to him, I saw him in the distance
in the Agency car. Worked all the morning in my upper office at the Annual report. Holmes is having a lottery for his
car, tickets at 2/8 each and the amount 400/-, I got two though I dont want the car in the least. Meeting at Aali, a very
big meeting as we had about a dozen villages, it was held in the Matem, a most picturesque building with a lot of
arches, we elected two men to represent that district, it went off very well indeed. Went along to the D.Gs in the
evening, it was very hot and stuffy, both seemed very bored with eachother. Sat on the veranda. Thunder and
lightening in the distance but it kept off and there was no rain. After dinner Prior came over.

Wednesday [4 May]