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1932

Fort, beat a man who was sentenced by the Agency to two years and thirty lashes for rape. He was really well beaten
and couldnt stand up by the time we had done with him, its the best sort of punishment for that sort of thing. Court.
Got finished early as I started in good time and we had no interruptions. In the afternoon went to the Fort and to the
Police station and took the dogs for a run, then went with the Police and raided a house for arak in the Naim quarter
and then to the D.Gs for some time, found him very irritating. Hot morning but a breeze in the afternoon.

Sunday May 8th 1932

Court. Long morning as we had one long case. Went out a drive in the afternoon and on the way back looked into the
Police Station where I found Haji Sulman investigating a case about some arak so I took him in the car and we went
along to the house where we found a tin of it which a man was just going to carry away when he was caught. Went in
to see the D.Gs and stayed there till dinner time.

Monday [9 May]

Shaikh Abdulla came in the morning and I had a long talk with him about the Khalifah land question, he was very
sensible about it and is strongly in favour of the new idea, not new at least as it is a return to the old system by which
all gifts from the Ruler are held only for the life of the person to whom the land is gifted. Then he talked about his son
Mohamed, he says he is never sober and sleeps all night and wanders about, drunk, all day. Abdulla says he has beaten
him and talked to him and done everything but with no effect. He says he wishes he would die as it is the only thing
that will prevent his drinking, we then discussed the liquor business. Court. Did some work after lunch and then went
out with Holmes to the Ain al Hakim and there we met Ham and Steele, all came back and went into Holmes house for
a drink, Williams of the Oil Coy came in and talked about the oil business, it all seems very chancy, he said that the
indications are good but its impossible to tell whether there is any or not, apparently what they got is no good at all.
After dinner Hamood came to me with a bottle of Arak which he had got from a house so I took the two Police on
guard and we went along to the house which was a big one near the Kozaibis. The door was shut and we couldnt get in
so I opened it with one kick, these doors seem to open very easily, we found a young man inside, a servant, half drunk
and a very big distillery and a lot of arak. I put two men outside and shut the door again and I with two other Police
and Hamood waited inside the yard. After about two hours two women came and as they tried to open the door we
arrested one, who lived in the house, and shut her into the room, then we shut the door again and waited, it was quite
exciting, finally the owner of the house came, a Basrawi, so we nabbed him too and sent the lot up to the Fort under
escort. Really a very good haul, I gave Hamood Rs 50/- for the job, it was well worth it.

Tuesday [10 May]

Biladya meeting, Manama. Prior did not attend. They went over the new Budget and also discussed money affairs, a
good meeting. Both the up and the down mail in at the same time, very unusual. Hot day. Went to the Mission for
tennis, it was awful, like playing in a stoneheap as the court is all ups and downs. Not many people there. After the
Mission we went to Mespers to play Bridge but there was only one table as Russell had forgotten to tell the other
people. Hot evening. Did another raid, on the houses of some Jews near the big mosque in the Muharram square. In