Page 741 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

1932

Wednesday 6th July

Had a kit inspection at the Fort in the morning, they had never had one before though in most units they hold one every month.
Very little was missing as it happened and they laid out their kit quite well. Then to the Joint Court to see the Shaikh, they
were taking a case in which Sh Abdulla's son Mohamed is accused of having taken a necklace from a woman whose husband
died in his house, slaves. The case was badly conducted. The Shaikh approved of the draft treaty which he saw but he paid
very little attention to it. He was very elusive and whatever I asked him about he said he would talk of when he came to
Manama on Saturday, he is moving in here on the day to the Palace and said he would come and see me in the afternoon. It is
a bore when he is at the Palace as he constantly comes round at odd hours. he had heard from Sh Mohammed from London
saying that he was staying another fortnight in order to see the King, evidently very full of himself. I am sorry he has gone
there it will make him more conceited than ever. Went up to the Shia Wakf Office and went over all the accounts which took
some time, they are getting on quite well but owing to the number of little bits of gardens they have a very large number of
accounts to deal with actually about 1800 accounts. After lunch went round to near the Wireless and had an unsuccessful raid
on a house where I heard they were in possession of liquor, then after tea went up to see the Palace, which has now been
painted and repaired, and then to the Biladya garden. Steele came in before dinner to borrow some books and after dinner I
went over to the Agency and stayed till quite late talking. A hot day but some breeze, they went out sailing in the evening.

Thursday [7 July]

Meeting of Wakf Department until about noon then work in the office. Busy morning, Thursdays always are. We have done
very badly this month, under 50,000. After tea went out to Ain al Hakim and after dinner raided a house in the town for opium
and got a good haul, it belonged to a man Ali Hassan who used to be in the Police, a Persian, we got into the house next door
first and looked through a hole in the wall and saw the people lying on the ground smoking it in the compound, then we went
round to the door and got in and after searching a long time found a little, there were two women so I sent for another woman
to search them but before they came one of them brought out a big bag of opium from under her clothes and gave it up. The
information was given by one of the naturs.

Friday July 8th 1932

Went round to the Bank in the morning but there was nobody there except Ham as they had been out sailing in the morning
earlier on. Sat there for some time. It is very nice but the old furniture looks rather shabby in the new building. Tennis at the
Agency in the afternoon, none of the Mission were there except Mrs Dame. I hear that Hakken is so angry at the probability of
America going "wet" again that it is quite dangerous to mention it to him.

Saturday [9 July]
Very long court in the morning. Cool day and a nice breeze. The Shaikh moved in from Sakhrir to the Palace. Didnt go out in
the afternoon as the Shaikh came in at about five oclock and stayed till seven. He dealt with three appeal cases with moderate
sense, he turned down one, quite rightly, but suggested a compromise in the other one which is of course absurd. Went across