Page 177 - Belgrave Diaries 1945_Neat

1945

Went to see the Commodore in the afternoon, he was very bored at having to go out to a party. Armour &
Gregor came to call. Dinner at Mhcj with Sh Khalifah b Sulman, also present Lowe & some excessively
common RAF officers, & Leigh. I wonder why one never meets any gents in the RAF out here. A dull little
party & not a very good dinner. Leigh as usual was extremely late - said he had lost his way, he is always
late at Arab dinners.

Wednesday 13th February

Took a ride round the town, it is cleaner than it was last summer I dont know why. Met HH at the customs &
Smith & I showed him my plan for moving the import shed and building a line of shops & new offices in the
square. He was much interested & gave his approval, then we went and drank coffee at the Customs.
Afterwards went to the hospital for a talk with Dick, Dr D & Miss Mcguire about nursing home facilities for
European patients also about staff. Looked over the matrons flat which looks extremely nice, the new
curtains made of local stuff are a great success. After lunch Shulum came in and stayed for a long time
talking about the state of things in Persia & Russian propaganda which is intensive & spread to Abadan
where it caused disturbances in the schools & trouble in the oil company. He says there is trouble brewing
up here. After tea drove out to Awali to see the Godfreys, thought they seemed rather off form, the small girl
is intolerably spoilt & badly behaved.