'A Grandfather's Tale: Memoirs being mainly concerned with service in the Indian Army and the Indian Political Service in India and the Persian Gulf from 1932-1947' [‎52r] (103/118)

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and eventually managed to pass the examination at the beginning of June.
In a way this was a waste of time and energy as it now seemed unlikely that
we should stay in the Gulf much longer, but having spent so much time already
on learning the language I was determined to qualify, though the reward itself
barely paid for ray teacher.
Early in May the children found three small sparrows in a nest in the
garden which had fallen from a roof gutter. They kept them alive for three
days with bread and milk, and gave them "flying" practice. Then one evening
we returned from tennis to find that on their afternoon walk Christopher
and Elizabeth had found six puppies on the sea shore, below high tide mark.
Some local Arabs, apparently unwilling to kill them outright, had left it
to the will of Allah to decide whether the creatures should survive when the
tide came up. The puppies were minute, with their eyes still shut, and we
were now faced with the awful problem of deciding what to do with them.
They were extremely mongrel and though attractive when small would not be
so later. Elizabeth said "But we only want two each"’. In the end we compromised
by agreeing that one should be kept and the rest sent to the doctor "to give
away".
Unfortunately in the excitement over the puppies the sparrows were
temporarily forgotten, and the next day, to Christopher's grief, he found
them dead. Elizabeth on the other hand, ever practical, got out her garden
trowel and insisted on a ceremonial burying, and Christopher then perked
up a little and suitably inscribed a smooth brick headstone.
In much the same way as the puppies Lulu, the cat, was found as a
kitten on a rubbish heap and appeared to be coal black. However r on being
washed she turned out to be white with blue eyes, hence her name, which.in
Arabic means a pearl. Arabs had an aversion from actually taking, the life
of a small animal but on the other hand, if it were not wanted, they would
make it as easy as possible for Allah to dispose of it I
The American Navy had only one representative in the Island, A
lieutenant Commander in the U.S.N. Reserve, who was an employee of Bapco.
le was a nice pink-faced ginger haired young man but quite clueless, and
/hen Admiral Connolly, the American Naval C.-in-C. Europe, based on.
Jrosvenor Square, London, decided to pay an official visit to Bahrain, chaos
mswed. The occasion was the visit in May 19^7 of U.S.S. Toledo, a hea y
cruiser of 17,000 tons, one of the biggest warships ever to come up the Gull.
Phe Admiral flew out from London with a posse of senior aides,.and ano er
Darty of senior officers, under Rear-Admiral Glover, flew m direct from
Washington. At that time I was officiating as Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. and the whole
oarty of about a dozen came to call on me, and then produced their "schedule .
Phis had been drawn up direct with the Reserve Lieutenant Commander wi
my consultation with me, and stated amongst other things that the Sheikh was
to call on the Admiral at such and such a time on a Friday. 1 T
*s tactfully as possible that:- (a) the Sheikh neither paid nor received calls
qn a Friday as he was too busy saying his prayers and did no oificial ousm