Item 02: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett articles on the Gallipoli campaign, 1915 - Page 93

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[Page 93]

their way through the soft soil. I heard someone say that this Campaign at the Dardanelles is only rendered tolerable because of the excellent bathing. This is quite true. We hold miles of sea coast and at any point except those sacred to the memory of decaying horses which have been buried out at sea but which will always return to the shore, you can have an excellent dip. In the cool of the evening when the brunt of the day's work is broken the inhabitants of Sea View love to sit on their terraces regarding the ever dwindling fleet of transports at the entrance of the Straits with the stem of the Majestic as a constant reminder of the great days when we still held the command of the sea, or to watch the fleet of Trawlers coming and going with troops and stores from the neighbouring islands.

It is a grand and sometimes placid sight with Asis as a backgroung six miles away looking so calm and peaceful as it inviting us to take possession of it. A few weeks ago you could let a good bombproof on Sea View for almost any price just as you can let a villa overlooking the sea at Folkestone or Eastbourne for what you like to ask at the heighth of the season when everyone has fled from town and the bathing is good. But now unfortunately prices along Sea View have fallen with a horrid and disastrous slump and the hotels are almost empty and everyone is trying to take a place in the country further inland. The reason is this. The submarines having forced our battleships to take shelter the Huns have now seized the opportunity of erecting batteries of heavy guns behind Kume Kale on the Asistaic Coast, and with these they can fire right into the front doors and windows of all the houses along

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