Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 312
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[Page 312]
a gorgeous affair three stories high fronting a big tree-lined square. One enters by a wide marble-paved hall with huge pillars of the same material supporting the roof; off this opens a series of large reception rooms all richly carpeted and adorned with statuary reported to have cost £30,000. This is a mixed club to which all nationalities belong, and the Englishman sits cheek by jowl with the Hun. The English Club is less pretentious but nevertheless very good and comfortable, and we were made very welcome by its hospitable Members.
Everything is so portentously dear in Monte Video, that one needs to go ashore with fivers in every pocket, and a couple in one's boots to get back with. In the evening a party of us dined with the British Minister in a restaurant as big as the Piccadilly in London. The excellence of the dinner, the lights and music, and the animated throng of diners were a delight which we shall never forget. Remember we had been at sea for many weeks. We finished dinner about ten o'clock and found that life was just beginning. The streets were crowded and the music halls filling. We went to a hall and of course understood nothing, but were in that beatific state when such trifles do not matter. After a whisky and soda at the Club we made our way to the docks accompanied by half the English colony. All embarked on the waiting tug, and we got alongside at 2 a.m. The Admiral and Captain were sleeping on board, and all crept silently over the gangway into the wardroom. There we opened the bar and smoked and