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[Page 52]
At 3 p.m. dropped anchor & had orders from the Battle ship Lord Nelson to proceed to the wharf & moored at 3.40 p.m. & commenced disembarking troops & discharging government stores & ammunition 2000 troops all told. The Town we found had been occupied by the Turks & 30,000 soldiers. The Torpedoe boat destroyer landed a armed party first, then the British troops for the Transport. The Turkish general approached & ordered the British to leave giving them 24 hours to quit. The Lord Nelson, Grafton, Torpedoe destroyers & armed Cruisers had their guns directed towards the forts & town. The Turks were rounded up from house to house, a few shot in the fray. So at the end of a few days 30,000 starving troops laid down their arms & surrendered & interned cargo boats came in & H.M. Troopships. The Katoomba, Malwa & others were loaded up & thousands of Turks were sent away to Constantinople by the British authorities. The forts were manned by British troops, Indian & white soldiers & finally the whole town garrisoned. British patrols marching the streets night & day & order resumed, finally troops sent up 250 miles up by railway & the province of Batum taken over by British troops.
16.1.19
Continued discharged gun carriages & limbers & horses & mules from Cargo transports.
re the town next.