| Description | Typed transcript of pp.1-58 of Belgrave's diary for 1 January to 28 April 1954. Topics covered include New Year greetings and dinner with the American admiral on board his ship (1 January), meeting with various other naval officials and visitors (3-5 January), a difficult interview with the police superintendent Abdel Kerim (6 January), cinema visits (1, 9, 30 January, 20, 27 March), visit from General Frederick Gough MP and news of another Comet crash including eleven passengers from Bahrain - the bodies later identified from photos by Marjorie Belgrave (10, 15 January), visit to Saudi Arabia (11-12 January), an issue of film censorship (20 January), photography (22 January), departure of Peggy Weightman (24 January), a proclamation of King Saud's with implications for Aramco and its Bahrain operations (27 January), plans for a railway line (6 February), a visit from author Hammond Innes, getting background for a novel - presumably The Doomed Oasis (7-8 February), opium smuggling (13 February), Belgrave's view on the ruling families in the Middle East, with reference both to the Saudis and the Bahrain Khalifah (16 February, 8, 25 April), dinner for the Roman Catholic bishop followed by dedication of bell at the Catholic church, with parish priest Fr. Walter Connolly (20-21 February), a meeting of the Agriculture and Water Commitee (23 February), intrigue over oil (24 February), a visit from the young King Faisal II of Iraq with his uncle, the former regent Prince Abd al-Ilah and Tahsin Qadri (24-25 March), race day (26 March), visit from Wright, the new assistant adviser for Qatar (27 March), another Comet crash resulting in the grounding of all Comet aircraft (9 April), visit from King Saud (11-14 April) and Conservative MP Douglas Marshall and his new wife (17-23 April), awarding of an OBE for Shaikh Daij bin Hamed and an MBE for Husain Yatim (21 April), |