Page 101 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

weather and the lake and the mountains were looking their best. The
i beginning to go more to Hamburg in
co the boy as he passed me, ‘You are right, they are Arabs; he is an Arab
Shaikh liked Switzerland and remarked on the cleanliness and orderliness
of the place; he liked the water too, which he said was the best he had ever
drunk. If one only drinks water one becomes a connoisseur of water. We
spent a day at Geneva and listened to a debate in the United Nations
building; the local authorities of Montreux entertained the Shaikh in the
castle of Chillon, which I had known since I was a small boy, and my
Swiss cousins gave a reception for him in their house at Territct. Among
the guests were two or three old ladies who had known my family and
my grandmother. One of them, pointing to me, said co the Shaikh, ‘I
remember him when he was so high.’ She indicated a very diminutive
height with her hand. ‘Indeed,’ said the Shaikh, ‘the climate here is
evidently very healthy and people live to great ages.’
On Sunday morning the Shaikh said that he would like to go in a
tram. Under the disapproving eyes of the Head Porter of the Palace
Hotel, where we were staying, who seemed to think that a car was more
suitable, we boarded a tram outside the hotel and went to Vcvey, where I
had once been at school. Having arrived there I suggested that we should
walk down to the lake. The manners of the Swiss were admirable. We were
rather an unusual party, the Shaikh and the other Arabs were, as always,
wearing Arab dress, but though people looked interested nobody followed
us or crowded round us as they had done at times in Venice. In the market
place a fair was going on; there were round-abouts, sideshows and
shooting booths. Here we stopped and for some time while everyone in
the party shot at the moving targets, with considerable success. Among
other odd things which we won was a teddy bear. Considering the
amount which they spent on shots it must have cost quite a lot. I suggested
getting cars to take us back to Montreux, but the Shaikh said he wished
to go back by tram.
A Swiss woman and her small boy, he was about five years old, got
into the tram. Soon I heard, in French, an argument going on between
them. ‘They are Indians,’ said the mother. ‘No,’ said the little boy, ‘they
are Arabs, Indians don’t wear things on their heads like that.’ The mother,
a stupid-looking woman, was getting impatient. ‘Be quiet,’ she said. ‘I
know they are Indians/ However, the small boy was hot to be beaten and
continued to argue. The Shaikh saw that they were talking about him. He
took the teddy bear from one of the servants, beckoned to the little boy,
who walked down the tram to where the Shaikh sat, and solemnly
presented him with the teddy bear. It was an enormous success. Both
the boy and his mother were delighted, but when they got out I whispered
186
Shaikh.’ As they left die tram I heard the small boy telling his mother,
triumphantly, that she was wrong.
In Paris we went to see the dc Boussac stables at Chantilly and the
Bahrain Petroleum Company gave a dinner party for the Shaikh at
Maxims, after which we went to a revue at Bal Tabarin. The Shaikh left
before the entertainment was over; I stayed till the end, and I think it was
perhaps fortunate that he left when he did. Most Arabs have a pre­
conceived idea that Paris is the wickedest city in the world, though
nowadays those in the know arc
order to sec night life at its sheerest. We were met at Victoria Station by
the Duke of Edinburgh. We had not been warned that he would be there.
A delegation from one of the South American countries was in the same
train, there was slight confusion on the platform and I found myself some
distance from the Shaikh when he alighted so had no opportunity co tell
him who was meeting us. In the car on the way to the Mayfair Hotel, he
said to me, ‘Who was that young man at the station who was so polite?’
A very full programme had been arranged, which might have ex­
hausted a man more accustomed to non-stop social activities and late
nights than the Shaikh, but he stood up to it very well. On the night
before the Coronation we attended an Ice Review at Hammersmith, a
type of entertainment which was new to me, so I did not think of warning
the others to wear thick clothes; we sat in the front row almost on the
ice and felt colder and colder till eventually we decided to leave; both
the Shaikh and I started heavy colds after this entertainment. Arriving at
the door we found that the drivers of our official cars had disappeared.
The Shaikh suggested taking a bus, but buses at Hammersmith were not
the same as trams in Montreux so we returned to the hotel in a taxi. It
was pouring with rain and quite cold, yet in the West End thousands of
people were camping out all night on the pavements waiting to see the
Queen next day. This impressed the Shaikh almost more chan anything
else during his visit.
During the drive to the Abbey for the Coronation, the car in which
the Shaikh and I were in was at one time alongside the Persian Am­
bassador’s car- and we eyed each other with curiosity. Doubtless the
Ambassador, was chinking of his country’s claim to Bahrain. The Shaikh
had a seat in the inner part of the Abbey and I had one in the nave. He was
immensely impressed by the religious part of the service, which he under­
stood although he spoke no English, and by the magnificence and smooth
organization of the ceremony. We left the hotel at 8 a.m. and did not
IS?