Page 68 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

The Shaikh died on the following afternoon. Narayan, my Secretary,
and I were driving out to Rumaitha when we met a long procession of
cars descending the steep road through the cliffs, led by a car containing
Shaikh Sulman, Shaikh Mohammed and Shaikh Abdulla. I was extremely
worried because l had not got the secret document which had been
written by Shaikh Hamed. I had lodged it in the bank, which I thought
was the safest place for it. I suppose I should have withdrawn it when the Twelve
Shaikh became ill; being a Friday the bank was shut and the manager
was out, I had not yet been able to get him. The cars stopped, the Shaikhs
got out and led me to the side of the road. They then told me that as soon The old order changcth, yielding place to new.
as Shaikh Hamed died the family had unanimously chosen Shaikh The Passing of Arthur. Lord Tennyson. 1809-1892
Sulman as his successor. This was a relief to me in more ways than one,
for if the choice had been otherwise I should have been in a difficult
had been fifteen years in Bahrain when Shaikh Sulman, the present
position. I wheeled my car into the cortege and proceeded, behind the
Ruler, succeeded his father; they had been very happy years owing to
Shaikhs, to the cemetery, which was in the plain below Rafaa. The funeral
the kindness and understanding of Shaikh Hamed and because,
was very moving and for once in a way I completely broke down, for I
generally, the Bahrainis appreciated what I was doing. Of course there
was very fond of Shaikh Hamed and I had lost a very dear friend. All
had been difficulties. Sometimes my ideas had not met with approval,
along the cliffs above the valley there were hundreds of women, in black
ally there had been opposition to innovations and sometimes I had to
robes, weeping and wailing, and many of the men in the great crowd USU
drop or postpone new projects. When I wanted to introduce something
around the cemetery were indulging in unrestrained expressions of
new I found that the best plan, after obtaining the Shaikh’s consent, was
sorrow.
to explain my idea to two or three leading Arabs, not always the same
The Arabs stayed on to pray and I drove quickly home and, at last,
men, and after being taken into my confidence they often came to regard
obtained the document, which was now of no particular importance, the project as their own and therefore gave it support. One thing I soon
then I returned with it to Shaikh Sulman’s house at Rafaa. He was glad i
to have the information about his father’s wishes, which fortunately discovered: at the risk of being regarded as ‘barid’—cold—an axiom to •
follow was never to lose my temper or show excitement, which was often
coincided with those of the rest of the family. Some of his brothers were
a severe test of restraint" as some of the people with whom I had to deal
with him in the Maglis so he led me to another room where we had a
were maddeningly irritating. Often a Bahraini would say to me, of some
long talk. He described exactly what had happened earlier on, how
Englishman, ‘I can’t talk to him, he is too hot, he won’t listen,’ or he
Shaikh Abdulla had come to him saying that he would support him and
would say of someone: ‘That man! He has got too big a head!’ which
then all the family, without exception, had declared that they wanted him
implied conceit. Some of the Political Officers who had served in the
as Shaikh. He then asked me to remain with him and to work with him
states of Indian Princes expected the formality of an Indian court, but the
as I had done for his father, which I agreed to do.
Shaikhs were very informal. Personally I was in favour of a certain
After Shaikh Hamed died his silugi Hosha constantly ran away and j amount of state and ceremony on appropriate occasions, provided that
was found in the cemetery, so Shaikh Sulman gave her to me. One day,
it applied to the Shaikh and not only to British officials.
some weeks later, we took her to a place on the coast to do some cours­
One of my personal problems was how to weigh my loyalty to the
ing; she disappeared again and once again she was found in the cemetery
Shaikh with the loyalty which I owed to the British; this was not easy,
at Rafaa. But that was the last time that this happened. We took her
especially when the Shaikh and the British did not always see eye to eye.
home and she lived with us to a ripe old age.
Often I found that I was in agreement with the Shaikh when he disagreed
with the British. The British, ignoring the fact that I served the Shaikh, -
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