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[Page 54]
under conscription against their will but did not do any actual fighting they were used as a Saba Corp & forced to work under trying circumstances without any allowances allowed to their wives & families. They the latter were starving & brutally murdered during their absence.
18.1.19
Fine weather prevailed. We find we have aboard German officers disguised as Turks. The whole have been disarmed & kept strictly under a guard of the former Prisnors of war with loaded rifles & fixed baynots, yet allowed the free access to the ordinary troops & passenger accomodation of the Transport.
20.1.19
At 9.30 a.m. we are off the edge of the mine field dist. 12 miles from the forts at 10.10. We entered the Bosphoros & proceeded 2 miles in & there found a pilot awaiting us & stopped by a British Patrol examination steamer & proceeded to Constantinople. The Both sides of the Bosphoros were well guarded by British on one side & French troops on the other similar the forts & all portable guns. 11.30, Dropped anchor off the Sultan's Palace & had orders to discharge all troops, guards, Turkish soldiers & officers & also the Peace Delegates. So that by 5 p.m. all the troops etc. left & baggage. We hear this day that the Sultan of Turkey had orders to leave his main Palace also give up his Summer Palace. The French Commander in Chief making his head quarters at the Main Palace. The Harbor contained a very powerful fleet of the allies moored peacefully. The City & inhabitants are very quiet.