Page 731 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1932

was at the war and for this we had lent the boys rifles and uniform, etc, they wore false beards etc and were quite well made
up. The Sunni Kadi, who sat in the front row, looked more and more sour as the play went on, but a large part of the audience
became so interested in it that whenever the villain appeared they called him names, and when the virtuous people scored the
audience all applauded loudly. The boys knew their parts absolutely perfectly and several of them were naturally very good
actors. Altogether a most successful show and a great change to see something of that sort. Later on, before dinner, I went up
to the Fort to Roll Call and promoted the two men who were in the Police Station during the divers riot, one, who was a Lance
Naik I made Naik and the other, a naffar, I made into a naik, the latter is a black and a good man. I think it was a great shock
to the Superintendent as I did not mention it to him till I got there, I hear he always makes a lot of money on promotions. The
Mosquitoes up at the Fort are very bad though not in other places and a lot of the men are getting malaria, there is said to be a
lot of it about in the town. In the evening a dinner party at the Agency, a terribly dull affair though a very good dinner only too
long. Afterwards we sat and talked and left fairly early, there were only seven people in all which seems to be now the entire
English population. Hot day, the summer has really begun.

Saturday June 4th

Court, talked to Sulman about the oil, he is very interested in it all and said he would go out and see it at once. Took a drive in
the afternoon, meant to go out to Yatim's garden to see a tree, flame of the forest, which I hear is in bloom, but saw the oil
people evidently going there so turned back and called in at D.Gs where they came in later on for some time. Very hot
evening, no wind. There is a new man at the oil camp, quite a nice fellow and I think rather superior to most of the other men,
he has lived mostly in Canada.

Sunday 5th June
Court, dealt with the divers who we arrested in connection with the riot, the men who were actually at the head of the party
who broke into the Police Station, we gave them four years hard labour each and some of them to be deported after the
sentence, one of the men who stirred up trouble was given a year and others less amounts. We are very busy on the courts just
now. In the afternoon I went sailing with Prior, Ham and the doctor were in the other boat, it was a nice day for sailing and
quite cool on the water though stuffy on shore. We went past the Quarantine into the bay of Arad and across towards the two
islands between there and Hedd, there are still quite a lot of pearl boats not gone out but the men seemed very busy on them
preparing for the sea. Went into the Agency afterwards and stayed there quite a long time sitting on the veranda. Steele came
in too. There is still no news about the Imperial Airways Line coming down this coast.

Monday [6 June]

Court. Very hot day, south wind and a sort of dust haze over everything. The Bara is supposed to begin today according to the
stars but it does not seem to have done so. Went out to Ain al Hakim in the evening after tea and bathed and also gave the
dogs a bath, they like going out there very much and race along the shore when the tide is out. Met an old Bahrani man who
used to be on the Wakf Committee, he is moving his house to the edge of the garden above the Ain, had a long talk with him, a
pleasant old person, he was amusing on the subject of the Shaikhs, he discussed the characters of each of them but all he could