Page 771 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

Office, fort before breakfast. Spent a long time with Abdulla bin Jabr. In afternoon we had the usual tennis
& Bridge party and afterwards went on to dinner with Holmes, just ourselves. Mrs Loch came in and cast a
distinct gloom over the whole party. She has too much manner.

Thursday 15th Dec.

Went over to Muharraq & called on Shaikh Abdulla who returned late last night. Very cold. Walked up
from pier & met Sh Mohamed who assumed I had come to call on him so drank coffee in his Meglis. He was
very frigid as I expect he is very angry about my action about Sh Isa's estate. When Isa died I wrote at once
to Sh Hamed pointing out that it was the family custom of the Khalifah that all property of the Ruler himself
should be inherited by his successor as ruler not divided according to Shera law, so Mohamed & Abdulla get
nothing, but of course in Isa's lifetime he made them gifts of a great deal of property. This they hold for life
but on their death it reverts to the Ruler. From Mohammed's we went on to Sh Abdulla's Meglis where we
found a lot of people calling to condole & soon he came in looking very well & very sunburnt from his
hunting trip on the mainland. I made the usual remarks about Isa & then we talked of other things. On the
way back I met Sh Hamed going to his wife Ayesha's house & talked to him. He looked less tired & much
better, partly as he had lately redyed his beard a shiny blue black. On returning I found Abdulla bin Jabr,
the Shaikh's confidential man, & had a long talk with him about Isa's property. His old wife "The Queen"
has got away with almost everything which she got him to gift to her, the rest is hardly worth 12000/- Rs
per annum. Major Holmes went to Kuwait by plane. Motored before tea & then called on D.Gs.

Friday 16th [December]

Rain. Rain, the first this year. Bazaar morning & then to D.Gs (he) who was lunching in ... Drive & to
Russells.

Saturday 17th [December]

Foul day, very rough sea & cold & rainy. HMS Hawkins arrived after breakfast with the Triad. Owing to
mourning Sh Hamed took no part in the entertainment but Sh Sulman & I went to call on the Admiral,
Dunbar Nasmyth. Nasty going out rough & cold. Launch bounced about in most unpleasant way & I didnt
enjoy it. Went on board & paid the usual visit, the admiral extremly nice, ... SNO & Conte Ormonde were
there & Sulman got his first salute as son of Ruler, while Isa alive he was not entitled to this. We had a
guard of honour on the pier and the usual line of naturs and quite a crowd had collected to see the admiral
and his staff land. The Police looked very smart. After waiting about for some time in the rain they arrived
but the admirals gig was too big to get up close to the pier so they had to get into one of our own launches
to come ashore which rather spoilt the effect. There was no returning calls but as soon as they had
inspected the guard they drove off in cars to the Agency, all other ceremonial was cancelled owing to
mourning, so convenient. We had the Flag Lieut to stay with us, a very nice young man called Bentinck, we
looked him up in Whos Who and found he was the son of quite a well known admiral. In the afternoon
they had a big party at the Agency, there seemed to be simply dozens of young men off the three ships and