Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 60
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[Page 60]
The innocents in the Melbourne believed the souvenirs to be the genuine article.
The three weeks in Gibraltar we continued to make pass pleasantly. There was the delight beloved of the Navy man of a feed ashore and there was the hospitality of the Mediterranean Club, a fine building just above the town from whose balconies we could look across the straits to Ceuta.
Gib [Gibraltar] itself consists of a rock with its forts and galleries a harbour a main street and a race course.
The latter being war time was not in commission and for recreation, one made daily jaunts across the neutral ground, with its British sentries one end and the Spanish the other - and so into Spain.
One quickly knew that one had entered Spanish territory by the smell, for Linea, the border town ranks with Port Said for filth and squalour.
The streets are dirty and narrow and their narrowness is made the greater by the creatures living on the streets. Mules donkeys dogs and goats rooted amongst the offal for a living.
Here and there a crowd gathered round a man more dirty than his fellows who pulled out teeth while you waited. The cleanest places we saw were the casinos where the better classes indulged in roulette which with bull fighting appears to be the national pastime.
Algeciras however another Spanish town just across the Bay was as clean as Linea was dirty and its hotel the "Reina Cristina" id famous amongst tourists for its comfort.
All sorts of rumours were current in Gibraltar as to the intuitions of the Spaniards for no patriotic Spaniard can view with equanimity British possession