Page 760 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

Saturday 5th Nov

Court, the air mail which was due Thursday arrived today, the delay was in Mediterranean where they had
bad weather. Went to the Fort before breakfast & gardened after lunch. Mohamed Ali Zainal, who arrived
from Paris by air, and Zayani & Yusuf Kanoo came to call. I was very dirty in the garden; they stayed some
d
time, Moh Ali seemed more cheerful about the condition of the pearl market in Europe. I hope he will do
some buying, he used to buy £400,000 worth in one season. Took James & M & Nannie out to Yusuf
Kanoo's garden after tea, it is very nice with lots of banana trees & vines, on the way back we went in to see
the D.Gs. She was out calling on Mrs Russell who is ill. D.G. was very talkative. Their drawing room
reminds me of a very poor boarding house sitting room, all pseudo Chinese objects of art. He seemed to
complain a good deal about her being extravagant!

Sunday 6th November

Office, court, didnt go to the Fort as on Sundays the men go for a march in the morning. South wind & very
hot. Motored up to Rafaa in evening. When we got back the Kanoo ladies came to call on M, about six of
them. I went over to the Agency but found Prior out so I crept in by the back door and sat in the nursery till
they had gone.

Monday 7th [November]

Court, Siadi case. In evening we went to a big dinner party at house of a Persian merchant close by whose
son is being married. Its a huge house with big tall rooms with windows all round, for the occasion they put
in electric light, the dinner was the usual Arab but on tables. Several of the big Arabs were there & most of
the Europeans. Most of the women wore day clothes but Mrs Haenggi appeared in complete low dress &
very bare arms which set all the Arabs staring, so unsuitable!

Wednesday 9th [November]

My new recruits started musketry, firing on a miniature range. They were very keen on it but not very
good. Office in the morning. Raided a house & found an arak distillery. Mrs Pickering arrived on the down
mail from Basrah, to stay with us. She is the wife of the Bank Manager in Basrah with whom we have
stayed several times en passant, a large plain fair female. She washed her hair & as it wouldnt dry she
stayed in her room until about seven oclock, the mistake was using local water, which is sticky, here we use
water from Bombay, brought on the mail boats, for drinking & special purposes such as washing hair. At
home in the afternoon, there were not so many people so we had some quite good tennis, followed as
usual by Bridge. We all play contract now.