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[Page 125]
"Una" where I again met Skeat (Surgeon) & Whittle (N.S.D. – now Engineer Lieut) who figure in the earlier pages of this journal. I find now that after all we were better off at Madang & Alexis than those left here as their work has consisted purely of garrison duties except a few told off as steam boats' crews. As far as I can gather, I am the only officer who has had the pleasure of the piratical excursions previously recorded, though Sub Lt Hext has been for the past few months at Admiralty Is.
A most disgraceful state of things exists here & in Rabaul in connection with food supplies. Rations which should have been here weeks ago have not yet left Sydney & the men are existing as well as possible on the meagre scale of provisions now in force. Men who have left home & all that home means & have been for months suffering from fever & other maladies common to the tropics leave the walls of the hospital to find a biscuit & a short ration of bully beef awaiting them. Wake up Australia! is this the way you treat the men who answered the call so readily? God grant that those who have gone to bear even greater hardships on the frozen battlefields of Europe will receive kinder consideration at your hands.
Glancing through the "Bulletin" just now I came across a paragraph recounting the death by accident of Dr. Prevast of Chatswood. The last time I saw him was at Palm Island where he came aboard the "Berrima" with