Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 311
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[Page 311]
all paid off except for the maintenance parties. We dropped anchor between two of them. They hoisted their ensigns and looked profanity personified. It must have been galling to patriotic Germans to lie in a neutral harbour and see our men-o'-war and merchantships come and go at will, and be themselves unable to stir. The Huns abroad, at any rate, could have been under no delusion as to the condition of affairs at sea, and must have smiled bitterly at the statements of the official German press.
The town of Monte Video is quite large, as big, perhaps, as Sydney, and more congested, and is a curious mixture of the old and new. Some of the streets are mere lanes beside which our own Pitt Street is a noble avenue, and the cowcatcher on the trams nearly brush one off the footpath. In other parts of the town, however, the streets are wide and lined with trees. The untravelled Australian pictures South America somehow as a benighted semi-civilised land of ruffians and cut-throats, and is therefore pleasantly surprised to see beautiful buildings and fine shops, and gaily dressed people who are quite civilized and harmless. The women dress well and, as far as we could judge, in the latest fashion. In the wardroom we always took the Delineator and the Lady's Pictorial to keep ourselves up to date. Several of the public buildings eclipse anything we have in Australia, though perhaps they are a little too ornate for the sober British taste. There is a big University with a staff of forty professors. The Uruguayan Club is