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evidently considering ousting Holmes mainly owing to our letter denying statements in his letter to P R. All very
disagreeable & complicated. The more I see of oil the dirtier I think it is - politics are clean compared to oil politics!
Sunday [30th July]
Court. Went to Ain al Hakim with the family & Gastrell and had a very nice bathe. James was rather lazy & wouldn't
swim much, he prefers playing with toy boats.
Monday 31st [July]
No Court, office, went to the customs, the work there seems dull, lots of accounts & not interesting, also most of the
clerks are Hindus and I do not like them. Hussein Yatim came to see me to ask if the Govt would allow a cinema here,
discussed the matter, it is rather a doubtful project financially. In the afternoon M & I went out lateish to Hussein
Yatim's garden taking a cold dinner & we stayed there till about 10 oclock. It was a very successful experiment, very
nice & cool out there and a change. We took Hamood. After dinner I had a long bathe, by moonlight, in the tank
which is overhung with jassamine & then we drove back in the cool to Manama. On the way it began to blow up and
a sort of sandstorm came on which made it impossible to sleep on the roof. The Shaikh went out to Sakhrir & is going
off on a hunting trip, I fancy partly to avoid the visit of the Shoreham with the S.N.O Captain Creagh, all the official
calling bores him so much.
Tuesday [1st August]
The sloop Shoreham arrived, very late as she was delayed by mist, the down mail didnt come in. Office, went to see
work on Shaikh's sook & to fort & customs. Played Bridge at the Russels after going for a drive & dined at Agency to
meet Captain Creagh, one of his officers, an Australian, Shaw, was there & ourselves & Gastrell. It was a pleasant
party & Creagh was most amusing & told very funny stories about a rebellion in some West Indian island, he has been
there a lot & his wife comes from there. We sat on the veranda & found it cool. Stayed quite late, so much
pleasanter than a crowd. The S.N.O is Irish & rather a rebel, he went off the deep end against the Foreign Office &
various other officers & said to me he expected I saw a good many cases of "dirty work" by the Brit Govt out here,
which one certainly does.
Wednesday [2nd August]
