Item 04: Arthur John Moore diary, 1 January 1919-1 April 1919 - Page 29

[Page 29]

SAT. March 1st
The black crew of this Boat are all smiles today, as they are nearly Home.
I wish we were as near Home as they are. It has been a very pleasant trip so far. Hot a single incident has happened so far to make the voyage unpleasant.
We passed into the Harbour just as the Bells sounded 1 p.m., & dropped anchor at 1.30. Right in front of our ship is Walkers Engineering Shop. We were soon surrounded by numerous boats & barges with niggers aboard selling Fruit of various kinds Bananas, Pineapple, Cocoanuts, etc. They did a roaring business. Later on a number of natives came aboard with moonstones & other articles for sale. They seem very cheap, but I'll wait till we get ashore before I buy anything.
Colombo Sunday, Mar 2
Well here we are at Colombo & we are going to be allowed ashore. Last night everybody was busy cleaning up boots, etc. We got thro' our work bright & early so as to get away soon as possible. It was fearfully hot & the sweat poured out very freely. About 9 a.m. a tug arrived towing a number of barges on which we went ashore. It took about 20 minutes to get there from the Boat. We passed a number of passenger boats. The passengers lined the sides & waved their 'Kerchief'. On getting ashore we were immediately pounced on by Rickshaw men & newsboys. With a number of others I went along to the Echelon Barracks where the Y.M.C.A. is. Here we had a feed & bought some fruit, which was very cheap. Pineapples, 2d each, coconut 2d, & bundles of bananas as many as a hundred in a bunch for 1/-s or