Page 978 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

976

1935

The French Admiral, Rivet, paid his call on the Shaikh in the morning, we had the usual Guard of Honour at
the pier & salute, he got 13 guns. I met him at the pier. He seemed rather unaccustomed to such affairs &
kept on standing still & saluting, I had some difficulty in getting him to walk down the lines of men. He
came up to the palace & paid his call. He was not very talkative. Group Captain Saul came too & paid his
call. The Admiral is a nice little man & quite amusing, he had two or three Officers with him, one had been
before. Later I went to lunch at the Agency to meet them, only men. Worth makes a very poor host, I sat
next to the Admiral & found him very nice. All the french officers speak English, most of them speak it very
well. Loch returned in the afternoon on the Fowey. We had tennis, expecting more people from the ship, but
they came in later, for drinks. We had Mrs Van Peussem too and she talked french to the Admiral, she is
Swiss, from Faibourg. I much enjoyed meeting the Frenchmen, it is a pleasant change to meet foreigners.
Had some good tennis.