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[Page 101]
Mon Dec 14th Fdk Winshafen [Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen] : The fleet is still here with the exception of my late and brief command the "Sian", which now flies the White Ensign and has gone north.
The past few days have been very pleasant; I have again met most of the officers associated with me in the "Berrima", while the ship's company of the "Una" (Komet) is comprised mainly of men who served under me on the way up. After seeing no blue-jackets for so long (except my own Naval Guard) it does one good to note the smartness & efficiency which always distinguishes the "tars who o'er the ocean sail".
Apropos of the concert evinced in the above lines I would like to enter an emphatic protest to the way in which the doings of the "Berrima" expedition have been reported in the Australian press. After reading the various accounts, & after looking through the pictorial edition of recent happenings in the Pacific (issued by Mr Burnell) I am beginning to wonder whether the Naval Reserve were in it at all; whether in fact we even left Sydney. I do not refer to myself; my diary shows what I have been doing, and I know one can never come into the limelight for simply doing one's duty; but it seems rather hard on the men who sacrificed their lives and on those who placed themselves on the altar freely (even though they escaped death) that their work is almost ignored.
We do not doubt that had the military been in the same position they would