Page 9 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

gentlemen were sleeping—not very suitable accommodation for a
described’ them, air-conditioned cowsheds. Bushire, once an important
honeymoon couple. I had entirely forgotten that it was the first night of Persian port, was a dismal place with many empty shops and an appear-
the Moslem month of Ramadhan, so I had not warned Marjorie about ancc of decay, but the country along the coast was attractive. There were
the guns which were fired off, very loudly, in the middle of the night. quantities of narcissi and wild lupins growing near the shore, and the
She and our neighbouring room-mates naturally assumed that the Druzc Residency garden was full of flowers.
tribesmen had launched an attack on the town. Rarely have I spent such Bushire is the principal Persian port nearest to Bahrain. From Bushire
a disturbed night. the Persians frequently attacked Bahrain and at various times in its history
At Palinyra we were entertained and shown round by the French they established themselves in the islands. But they were not the only race
Commandant and his wife, who were extremely kind and hospitable. which held Bahrain. The Portuguese occupied it for about a century,
We were very distressed to learn, a few days later, that the Druzes, during until they were driven out by the combined efforts of the Persians and the
an attack on the small garrison, had killed our kind hosts. Bahrain Arabs in 1602. The Persians then ruled the islands until they were
We arrived in Baghdad with no further adventures, very dirty and expelled by the Omanis in 1718. For a time Bahrain came under the
rather tired. After staying there a day or two we went by train to Basra domination of the Wahabis, from what is now known as Saudi Arabia.
to catch the British India mail boat which sailed every fortnight down Again, in the middle of the eighteenth century, the rich and powerful
the Gulf to India and called on the way at Bahrain. On reaching Basra, semi-independent Shaikh of Bushire conquered Bahrain, but in 1783 the
however, we were told that the ship had sailed—rather earlier than usual. Persian garrison was expelled by the Khalifah tribe, the ancestors of the
There was a certain elasticity about the sailings of the B.I. ships in those present Shaikh of Bahrain, who invaded the islands from Zabara, on the
days. Qatar coast, where they were then living. Since 1783 Bahrain has been
By this time I had very little money and I knew nobody in Basra. I ruled by the Khalifah family.
enquired about hotels and was directed to ‘the best hotel in the town*. It Next morning, with a stiff wind blowing, we went on board the
lay in the purlieus of the bazaar, in a very unsavoury quarter. I went in, Patrick Stewart, the cable ship, which was going across to Bahrain. It was
took one look and decided immediately that it was not the type of estab­ the one and only time I landed on Persian soil and it has always been one
lishment to eater for a respectable married couple. After driving about of my greatest regrets that I never saw the beautiful cities and scenery of
for some time we got a room at the Railway Club, which, though not Persia. Owing to my position in Bahrain, and the Persian claim to owner-
comfortable, was at least respectable. ship of the islands, it was thought ‘undesirable’ that I should visit Persia.
The prospect of waiting in Basra for a fortnight with little money and On the morning of March 31st, after a very rough night at sea, we
__ anchor about three miles from the shore off a long, low island. By
no friends was most depressing; at the time it did not occur to me that I cast
might have got help from the British Consul so I cabled to Colonel this time the sea was calm, the sparkling water was brilliant, green, purple
Prideaux at Bushire, on the Persian coast, asking what I should do. and aquamarine. Along the coast groves of date-palms extended down to
Fortunately he was able to arrange a passage for us in a troopship which the shore, and opposite the anchorage there was a town; to the east, a few
was carrying the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment from Iraq to miles off*, there was another town on a neighbouring island. Little boats
India, calling at Bushire on the way down the Gulf. Among the officers with white sails, crowded with white-robed Arabs, were skimming across
on board was Major Wemyss, with whom I had been at school at the water between the islands.
Bedford, and this made the short trip more pleasant than it would We had come to the end of our journey: this was Bahrain.
otherwise have been.
We stayed one night with the Prideauxs in the Bushire Residency, a
rambling old-fashioned house, built in the Indian style, with big, high
rooms and old-world sanitation, but comfortable and more dignified
than the houses which are now being built in the Gulf. Some of these
look like third-rate seaside hotels or, as someone unkindly but accurately
15
-___h'Js-ji . " ■JwjrT"'7' - •• - . •- V-' -V