Page 890 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

888

1935

it to Sh Hamed. Steele came in and showed me various inaccuracies in hash's report on the 6 months while
he acted as State Engineer. He showed a profit by debiting large sums to Capital account which looks nice
on paper but is actually worse than before. The whole thing is in a muddle and the Govt is losing money all
the time. M & I drove out early to Saphrer as I had to see the Shaikh, he is out there for a few days when I
arrived he was sitting on the mud beach outside the house with the usual line of Arabs getting in a long row
in front of him, he was discussing Ibn Saoud & the rebellion over three 3 years back. He sent away the
people & talked business for an hour, in the middle we were interrupted by Yusuf Kanoo who returned
yesterday from Iraq by air & came to call. YK was amusing, he motored from Kuwait to Baghdad & the car
broke down, but Iraqi Police helped him, being unable to tip them suitably, according to the "high position"
as he is nearly bankrupt, he promised to reward them and , so he said, when he called on Prince Ali the
King's uncle, he got him to raise the man's pay & to send a wire about it. Discussed the secretary for the ....
and I suggested two candidates. The Shaikh postponed decision till Abdullah returns, talked about the
hospital boat, Mohammed's share in the Japan purchase money. The Shaikh was very firm & mentioned a