Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 316
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 316]
relief to find the total indebtedness about half-a-crown. The churches are one of the sights of Rio. They are large and well built, but are adorned with electric sky-signs exhorting the inhabitants to drink So-and-so's beer or indulge in Dr X's pills. The walls are often bespattered with theatrical notices and pictures of reigning stage beauties. One supposes that the local padres make an honest res or two out of it.
Our stay in Rio was cut short by the receipt of information from the Admiralty that we were to proceed as soon as possible to N 3º W 37º and await the coming of the Kronprinz Wilhelm which was to meet her collier there. So in the afternoon we steamed out and made north and east again to the Abrolhos. We arrived two days later and began to coal. At the Abrolhos we got a small Australian mail brought up from Rio in a collier, the first home news for nearly six months. Amongst the Australian papers was a copy of the Melbourne Age of December 23rd wherein a report of the Emden action was published had been forwarded by the Age's correspondent with the Australian troops, who had come aboard at Colombo for copy and had leg pulled. Amongst the gems were these: "The Padre was in the sick-bay when the action began, and it was he who carried on almost alone for a time when the first cases reached the doctors. The ghastly nature of the wounds had for a time incapacitated the others. The work indeed was declared to be almost heroic by his messmates." Now the Padre naturally hated war and blood as something foreign to his calling, and the