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[Page 47]
1919
New Years Day
Arrived at the Bosphoros at 7 a.m. & steamed through & arrived off Constantinople at 10 a.m. Disembarked some of our troops & baggage.
2.1.19
Embarked troops for Salonika & left the wharf for anchorage outside harbour & left next morning for Salonika. This day went ashore at Constantinople. Invited up to the British General Headquarters for lunch & then went with some Military officers in a German commandeered Motor car all around the City. It is a large city & fine buildings but the streets are narrow & badly kept. We called at the German wireless & cable head quarters & seen a beautiful plant left behind by them all intact, the Germans having cleared out a few days before the British took the city over. The streets were full of Turks & seemed to be very orderly. The best part of the shops open & fairly well stocked but everything very dear. British battleships were moored alongside the quays also French & Greeks, the Harbor full of allied shipping. It appears that trouble occurs at the old part of the City Stamboul [Istanbul?] at night generally between the Greeks & the Turks & several murders occur daily.
3.1.19
At 1 a.m. we left the anchorage for Salonika at 11 a.m. in the Narrows & passed the nets & barrage & the forts & off Cape Helles at 2 p.m. passing within ½ a mile of the River Clyde & several other transports sunk there, also the French cruiser. Off Imbros we were escorted through the Turkish mine field by the British destroyer Hind