Page 61 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

melon and fish at the same meal was a dangerous practice, but I have
servants in orange, crimson, vermilion and green robes lined the palace
stairs and stood outside the audience-room, each with a silver-mounted frequently done so without any ill effects!
The King was present at a Torchlight Tattoo which I had arranged.
dagger in his belt and carrying a curved sword. Inside the palace the
It was a novel form of entertainment in Bahrain and as few people had
Khalifah Shaikhs were gathered in their robes of state, wearing richly cm-
seen such a spectacle it made a great impression on the vast audience
broidcrcd silks, cloaks threaded with gold, Kashmir hcadshawls bound
which witnessed it. The performers were the police, the town watchmen
with gold circlets and golden, gem-encrusted, daggers and swords. The
and several hundred schoolboys. The show was held on the open ground
saluting guns—they were a present from Queen Victoria to the Shaikh’s
in front of the Manama fort and for the occasion we had raised seats two
father—boomed at somewhat irregular intervals as the King and the
or three tiers high. The first half consisted of marching and evolutions in
Shaikh entered the building. In contrast to the resplendent Bahrain
which the men and boys carried torches and large square lanterns of
Shaikhs the King was simply dressed in a long white robe, a plain brown
different colours on long poles. The second part was more ambitious;
cloak and a red-and-white cotton headcloth with only the gold circlet
flood-lighting was used for the first time in Bahrain to illuminate the sets
denoting his rank, but his bodyguard of coal-black negro slaves, who
in different parts of the arena. There was an Arab village, complete with
never left him, almost outshone the Bahrain Arabs in colour. Their short
mosque and shops, a palm grove with a well where the women drew
coats were of every hue, decorated with gold thread, and their belts and
water, a strip of shore where almost life-sized sailing dhows came along­
bandoliers bristled with silver daggers and shining cartridges. Every man
side, from which a party of pirates landed and attacked the village. Both
had a sub-machine-gun under his arm, which I am sure was loaded, and
horses and camels were used with great effect; they behaved very well
several times during the visit I felt rather nervous when I saw one of them
except for one camel, who bolted into the audience, fortunately without
fingering the trigger in an absentminded way.
injuring anybody. In the grand finale the village was sacked and burned
The visit passed off well and there were some spectacular entertain­
and the women, played very realistically by schoolboys, were carried off
ments. The leading Saudi Arabian merchant gave a dinner in his country
house on the top of the hill at Rafaa at which 600 guests sat down to a shrieking across the saddles of the mounted men. Most Arabs have a
natural aptitude for acting. Some of the plays which were put on by the
gargantuan feast of mutton and rice and other dishes. The moonlight was
as bright as day, the great courtyard of the house was entirely carpeted boys’ schools were extremely well done.
The scenery for the sets, which was quite elaborate and very effective,
with Persian rugs. It was the largest dinner party I have ever seen.
was designed by me and painted by myself and Max Thornburg, an
The King, unlike most of the Bahrain Arabs, talked all through the
meal. American friend of ours who was then the manager of the oil company,
assisted by a White Russian who had a flair for painting. The young
On another day, when I went for a long drive with him and the
Russian had come from Teheran and landed in Saudi Arabia without
Shaikh, he never stopped discussing both Gulf and European politics.
money or papers; he was promptly put into jail where he spent some
HI I After saying how much he detested the Jews he expressed his abhorrence miserable months. Somehow he got away and landed on the Bahrain
; of Hitler’s method of exterminating them. It would have been better, he
said, to have shorn them of their possessions and to have let them live. coast where he was picked up by the police. For some time he lived in the
fort, more as a guest than a prisoner, and then I found him a job as a
He had recently seen the German Ambassador from Baghdad who
motor driver, but he was so hopelessly absentminded that he became a
assured him that Germany and Italy together were invincible, a statement
which the King doubted. On the subject of some recent troubles in menace on the roads. Finally I got in touch with his compatriots in the
Lebanon, who knew him, and we succeeded in sending him to Beirut. I
Bahrain he displayed a stout monarchical spirit. His vieVir was that The
never heard of him again though I made enquiries about him.
People should not be encouraged to acquire political power and the work
Max Thornburg was a great friend of Shaikh Hamed, who gave him
of governing should be left in the hands of those who were accustomed
•a .little island off the town of Budeya, west of Manama. It was nothing
to rule. Some of his views on food were interesting if unusual. Fresh milk,
more than a sandbank covered with masses of little shells of a kind known
straight from the cow, was the ideal purgative, so he said, and fish should
as ‘Sabaan’, hence the island’s name, ‘Omm as Sabaan’, which means
never be eaten at night, only at midday. Other Arabs told me that to eat
no in