Page 723 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

721

1932

Monday 10th Muharram [16 May]

Went down the town after breakfast, left my car at the Bank and went round the place watching the procession. I did
not go to the big square as I find it is easier to get photos from the other streets. I took twelve. Mohamed Yatim now
sells films that fit my camera which is convenient. The show seems to get bigger and bigger every year, there were
certainly more men with swords than last time I saw it and I never saw such a lot of blood. About six men collapsed
but I dont think any of them were really badly damaged. I dodged about and watched it from several different places. I
met Pennings who said he had been standing in the square under the mosque and found it very unpleasant as the
swordsmen came so near to him that he had difficulty in dodging the swords. There were no incidents and it all went
off very well. It was very hot in the town, a south wind. I saw some of the men from the Oil Camp in the distance
looking on, they had never seen the show before. I hope the photos come out well. In the afternoon I drove out to Ain
al Hakim and had a very nice bathe there, it is quite deep in parts and deep enough for bathing all over and has the
advantage of not being frequented by lots of people. The Agency sailing party came back in the morning, I went across
to see Prior before dinner and he told me all about the trip. Ham ran his boat aground and made a hole in it off the
island so coming back they went right out to sea to avoid the reefs. I think it was really rather dangerous and it all
sounds very uncomfortable and I was glad I was not of the party. They saw no hares and no sand grouse and seem to
have been very hot and to have got very badly burnt by the sun. Did some work with D.G. about accounts and stayed
to dinner with them, quite a good dinner. Mrs D.G. goes on the 29th. She feels the heat and carries a fan everywhere
which she flips about the whole time, it has the affect of making everyone feel hot. Her complection, poor lady, is
deep purple.

Tuesday 17th [May]

Office, no Muharrak Biladya as the election is not complete. A lot of people came in to see me. The Agency took the
Georgis case and gave him 9 months and then to be deported. Down mail came in also the A.P.O.C. boat with rather a
nice young man from Abadan who had a note to me from Teviot Kerr, he seems to be in Luard's job, Luard having left.
He was sailing at once or I might have asked him to stay with me. Abdul Nebi Bushiri came in about a road between
his new buildings and the Shaikh's ground, there is a row about it. Abdulla, son of Sh Hamed came to see me after his
trip to the Haj, he talked very interestingly and intelligently about conditions in Ibn Saoud's country, they are in a very
bad way financially apparently. He told me that they have a Wakf Dept and the system for estates that we tried to push
through here in Mecca itself. Gardened in the afternoon, there is not much left in the garden now but a few zinnias are
coming out. Steele came in at sunset and after dinner Prior came across. He is going to Kattar for some days and says
that Gastrell may come down while he is away and if so he wants me to put him up which I should be glad to do as I
like all I have heard of him. I have started sleeping on the roof, the boys put my bed up there so I thought I would go
up, it is very cool and I need two blankets, but down below it is extremly hot. Steele's nose since the sailing trip is
bright scarlet.

Wednesday 18th [May]

The Shaikh came in, by arrangement but much earlier than I expected, and then Prior and Shaikh Abdulla, the latter
with his son Mohammed in tow. The Shaikh wasted a lot of time talking about any subject under the sun and was