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[Page 103]
according to Paris newspapers. Kitchener's conference in Paris has produced a thorough understanding with the French Govt. K of K will visit Dardanelles, Egypt, Macedonia, Greece.
The Greek Cabinet has been reconstructed & it will maintain an attitude of very benevolent neutrality towards Entente.
Today has been a day of events locally. Our feeling of security from enemy fire in this little hollow wh we call Otago Gully has been decisively shattered in one short hour. Our palatial & comfortable home wh has been erected at so much pain & with such diligent care and made so beautiful to the eye with its large sandbag offices covered with varied colored tarpaulins along its parallel tiers of terraces has lost all its romantic calm serenity & been practically wiped out in places by terrific shell fire. The enemy have found us out. That they have not been fully aware of our delightful abode before this, I have not doubted such for a thing for a moment. But we have been lulled into a false sense of security because of their supposed lack of ammunition, & we have failed to take the necessary precautions against bombardment, viz. by digging into the bowels of the earth & making tunnels of retreat, which are the only safeguards against the tremendous lumps of metal wh the enemy are now launching at us with apparent prodigal expenditure.
Since Bulgaria declared war Turkey has been steadily reinforcing her ammunition supplies, & we are now receiving the full benefit of it. We have been warned about it & our inactivity is costing us dear.
The bombardment opened about 3 pm – whirr, whirr, whirr – then simultaneously a number of terrific explosions which made the earth tremble beneath our feet. Then an interval of 2 or 3 minutes. Then more of the huge metal monsters billeted themselves amongst us – one completely wrecked the General's dining room & shattered the