Page 883 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

881

1934

Monday 12th [March]

Fort. Court. Lunched at the Agency to meet General Haig & wife & daughter. He is head of the military
mission to Iraq. Very nice people, he knew John very well. She was very regal but nice & the daughter
young, smart & pretty but hard looking. Mrs Loch was alone as Loch has gone to Qattar with the P.R.
Lyon was there. After lunch we went down the pearl bazaar but found nobody there, then for a drive. I
drove the General and Mrs Loch took the wife & daughter. When we passed the Fort he got out & had a
look at the Police, he thought they were very good. Abdu Rahman Zayani brought some pearls round for
them to see but they wanted to match their necklace, and the colours were wrong so they got none. Both
had very bad pearl necklaces, Zayani thought nothing of them & said so - several times. The General was
a very typical soldier and I fancy he will find it difficult in Iraq as the job is so tied up with politics. He
was very nice. In the evening I went to Mespers & we played Bridge, the Haigs and Lyon went off to the
boat which sails tomorrow. Everyone seemed very gloomy at Mespers & Mrs Russell ahd a heavy cold.
Russell didn't appear except for a moment as he is so busy. He will get ill from overwork - but he does
much more than he need to.

Tuesday 13th March

Fort. Went over to Muharraq to the municipal meeting, sailed across, a fine day for sailing, a good
breeze. Dull meeting. Then had a busy time in the office till 2 pm. Had a long talk with Steele about his
leave etc. The P.R. & Loch returned from Qattar. Went out with Mohammed Khalil in the afternoon to
see some land.