Page 748 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

1932

each side of the river, as it is the date season we could see all the heaps of dates in the enclosures surrounded with palm fences
among the gardens and people moving about like ants about them. A thing I noticed in flying over the villages was that
everyone seemed to have their beds on the roofs and all had mosquitoe nets over them. After a while we left the gardens and
flew over marsh land, flat country with stretches of mud and what looked like very blue lakes. We had breakfast on board,
eggs and bacon and toast and jam, cooked by one of the R.A.F. men at a very neat little stove in the machine, there were about
four men besides the officers. Soon we got down to the top of the gulf and from there we followed the coast passing Kuwait
and a few little villages, but from where we touched the sea down to Bahrain the coast was absolutely desolate, no cultivation
and just yellow desert but in places the sea was a very wonderful colour and we could see right down to the bottom as we flew
over it. We had a mishap off the coast above a bunch of islands, the oil pipe snapped and we had to come down landing on the
sea close to the shore near a little village. After a lot of fuss Fletcher and I got into another machine and the others of the party
were divided up in the two boats and we started off again but the machine I was in as it was taxiing ran bang into a sand bank
so we all had to get into the sea and shove, rather a comic sight, but we got it off and arrived in Bahrain without any more
adventures. Bahrain looks very attractive from the air, the gardens look very green and the sea very blue and the towns look
rather finer than they really are. We landed at the R.A.F. place and I found a great crowd of people there to meet me, Shaikh
Sulman and most of the leading merchants and officials and de Grenier and Steele and all the people from my office, they had
prepared a reception in the garden house of Abdulla bin Jabr so we all motored along there and drank coffee with him in a very
nice sort of glorified summer house in his garden. Fletcher and his two officials of the Imperial Airways were obviously
extremly impressed by it all and seemed to enjoy it very much. Motored home and found everything well and the alterations in
the drawing room a very great success. D.G. and Steele came in and I arranged for D.G. to take the I.A. pilot to his house, I
put up Welsh and Fletcher. Had a busy time in the afternoon, people kept calling all the time till we went out and then I took
them to see the aerodrome and to Steele's house and round about the place. In the evening D.G. and his guest came to dinner
and we played Bridge. I like both Welsh and Fletcher, on the whole I prefer the former. Fletcher was very pleased with
Steele's house and decided to take it as a rest house for the Airways passengers when they are held up here a night by bad
weather.

Sunday 11th September 1932

Went to see the Shaikh in the morning at the Palace taking Fletcher with me to make his official call. He seemed very lively
but didnt look well, partly because he had a fall off his donkey yesterday while out hunting. He talked a lot about various
things and made very suitable remarks about the coming of the airways. Fletcher was quite impressed by him, as most people
are. After breakfast Welsh and Fletcher and his two men went over to Muharraq to see the landing ground there and got back
by lunch time; I had a continuous string of callers of all sorts. It is nice to feel that the people are really glad to see me back,
and I am sure they are. The weather is remarkably nice for this time of year but all say that it was very sticky in August just
after I left, so I was lucky to miss it. I usually count September as the worst month here but this year it is quite different. In
the afternoon after tea I took my guests out to the Ain al Hakim where we had a very pleasant bathe, first in the sea, which was
almost hot and then in the fresh water pool which is right on the edge of the sea and which was deliciously cool on contrast. It
is a pretty place on the shore and looks just like what one imagines the South Sea Islands to be like, palm gardens sloping right
down to the waters edge and little sandy coves and distant islands covered with palm groves. Dined with de Grenier and
played Bridge. They had meant to go on tomorrow down the Oman coast but the machine that went back to Basrah yesterday
to get a new oil tube after fitting it onto the machine which we left at Jinna island had a similar mishap so they are staying
another day. I sent the R.A.F. men out to the Oil Camp where they had the pipe patched up. D.G. was very pompous at dinner
and talked very stupidly, he seems to have become very swolen headed while he has been acting for me but all the same he is