Then the Ship’s Policeman took it into his head to go mad and caused quite a sensation by wanting to jump overboard, with the result that he was placed in the cells, under guard. After a day or so, he improved sufficiently to be removed to an empty second class cabin amid ships where he was guarded by Harold Mitchell, Bert Allen and myself and another chap. Our instructions were to humour him and comply with all his demands, which we did to the best of our ability for two or three days until we reached Colombo.

We were pleased when he was escorted ashore, however, as he was a very big, strongly built chap, and had a nasty habit of illustrating to us the manner in which he used to slay his victims in the Roman wars when he was a Roman General hundreds of years ago! So that our lives were often in peril from his mighty swipes which used to just miss our heads by inches. Since our prisoner was allowed any article of food that he demanded and it being our duty to procure whatever he asked for, we frequently “made hay whilst the sun shone” and treated ourselves to sundry delicacies from the 2nd class kitchen, at our charge’s expense, as he, not being responsible for his actions, never used to know two minutes afterwards what he had ordered so that we did well for tucker whilst acting as his warders.

The heat was now very trying indeed, especially down below in the vicinity of the water line where we took our meals. We generally felt quite hungry at dinner time whilst on deck, but when we went down to our mess quarters three decks below, our appetites disappeared at once, due I suppose to the stifling heat and bad ventilation. It was so hot in fact down below while in the tropics that we soon became saturated with perspiration and “could easily wring out our handkerchiefs after half an hour of it and it was impossible to sleep there at night time.

Every night at 6 o’clock, we were allowed to bring our hammocks on deck and there was generally a wild bulldog rush to secure our hammocks first and be up on deck in time to secure a good “possy” for the night and I often thought when watching the struggling mass of men on the gangways at this hour, what would happen if we should be torpedoed or if a fire alarm were to occur. I am afraid it would have been a case of the survival of the fittest, as I am sure all the small men would have been killed in the crush.

On 1st April we arrived at Colombo and anchored outside the breakwater in sight of the town for two hours awaiting orders. We naturally were all very anxious to be allowed ashore but until the authorities were satisfied that the ship was “clean” and until it was known how long we were to stay in port, nothing could be done in the matter of letting us ashore. In the meantime, we were boarded by numerous natives who all had some article or other to sell at exorbitant prices, such as moonstones; black carved wooden elephants; handfuls of local money, etc. for which prices were asked which would show about 700% profit. Needless to say there were any number of men aboard who were credulous enough to be taken in and the native “profiteers” did a roaring trade, much to their dupes’ indignation when they finally got ashore and found that they could buy the same articles for one tenth of the money asked on the ship. For instance, a moonstone worth 3d. was sold at 3/- whilst about 4d. worth of coins was sold for 1/- etc.

At about 2 o’clock in the afternoon we were told we could go ashore, the news being received with roars of cheering and presently seven lighters were towed alongside the ship by a tug and the troops were loaded on them and were then towed ashore to the landing stage about half a mile distant. We were then formed into column of route and were marched in the blazing heat through the town of Colombo to the Slave Island Barracks, which were at that time used by the Garrison of the town, and were there given a meal of bread and jam, bananas and tea. Here we were told that the Barracks were to be our headquarters and that we were being given four days ashore to enable the ship to take in cargo and coal etc. and after a few words of warning and advice were allowed to wander wherever we chose, reporting back in the evening of each day for a roll call and our meals, and somewhere to sleep. In the evening of the first day, Bert Allen and I indulged in our first experience of driving in a rick-shaw drawn by a native and I am sure we must have looked like Dukes as we sat back and smoked cigars as we were taken round at a trot through the crowds of natives in and out of all the main streets of Colombo. The only trouble was that dozens of dirty beggars all the while kept pace with the rick-shaw, in a most miserable woe-begone tone, until they were driven off by a native policeman with a whip. One woman carrying a baby chased my rick-shaw for over half a mile until at last I gave her a half-penny, whereupon she salaamed to me, and then went on her way rejoicing (all for an halfpenny.) All the natives are great cadgers and seem to live on the trade and had numerous dodges for extracting money from the “Good Australians.” Sometimes about ten boys would be seen chasing a rick-shaw with an Australian soldier reclining gracefully in it, all the time slapping their bellies, and rolling their eyes and moaning most piteously and saying they were starving and had no father or mother, etc. forgetting of course that if they were in such dire circumstances, that they would not be able to run so fast but they rarely failed to get a small coin nevertheless.

At our headquarters, the Barracks, we had most of our meals which usually consisted of a more or less vegetarian diet, on account of the heat, composed of bread, butter and jam, bananas and delicious tea for which of course Ceylon is famous, whilst we were also able to buy any amount of bottled Japanese beer. Our meals were served to us by little lithe brown skinned natives who were most courteous and seemed quite satisfied with life generally.

On the second day ashore, Harold Mitchell, Bert Allen and I hired a rickshaw apiece and proceeded on a tour of sight-seeing We first of all visited the Fruit Markets where all kinds of fruit grown on the Island was heaped on stalls for sale, but we did not stay long at this spot on account of the awful smell of rotting fruit. Next, we drove around the native quarter but were soon driven away from there also on account of the droves of beggars and also the horrible smells from the refuse in the gutters. After that we went further afield and drove out about a mile until we came to the famous Cinnamon Gardens and the Museum both of which we briefly inspected. Then we came to the Buddhist Temple and had a look at that. We were civilly asked by a priest to remove our boots which we did in fear that they would be stolen, but they were not as it turned out, and we were then led around by the Priest and shown the three figures of Buddha in the reclining, sitting and standing positions, all executed in porcelain and very ancient. We were shown the visitors book and signed our names therein, the priest meanwhile pointing out the signature of Edward VII and some other high personalities, after which the priest invited us to put two shillings in a collection box for the good of the “poor” which we did, and were then led round the temple until we came to the altar table. This was covered with petals of flowers, which is the offering given by the poorer natives and rather impressed me as being a good and cheap idea which ought to be introduced into our own churches instead of “the passing around of the plate system.” After extracting another sixpence each from us the priest informed us that we had seen all there was to see and added that he would be pleased to have the honour of showing any of our friends around the glories of the temple if we would tell them to go along. We then replaced our boots and retired with the knowledge that we had really seen little and spent much and cherished an admiration for the cadging qualifications of the priest.

We then drove back in our rickshaws to the centre of the town and stopped at the Glove Hotel where we got rid of our rickshaw boys after much argument about the fare etc. and then went inside the Hotel with the idea of buying something to eat. We discovered that the menu consisted of chops and potatoes, fruit etc, so decided to try our luck. When the food was brought it turned out-to be one microscopic chop about as big as a half-crown with two small potatoes. However, aided by copious draughts of beer made in Japan and plenty of bread and jam, we managed to make a fair meal, and since it was so hot (120°F in the shade) we really did not require much food, so we paid our bill which was 3/- each and retired to the Victoria Gardens near by for a smoke and a breath of fresh air.

Here we lounged about under the shady trees until late in the afternoon, amusing ourselves by talking to the natives and taking photos, etc. until it was time to go back to our headquarters, the Barracks. After tea we again made our way down to the main thoroughfares of the town bent on amusing ourselves as best we could since it was our last evening ashore. Presently we saw some strange looking troops coming toward us wearing a grey uniform, with caps and top boots, and marching six abreast, who, on closer inspection turned out to be a body of Russian infantry on their way to the western front from Siberia, and who were ashore for the purpose of stretching their legs. They were big bearded, simple looking men and rather amused the Australians with their peculiar uniforms and outlandish talk. These Russians only came ashore as I said for a little exercise and after marching for about four miles round Colombo went back to their transport and sailed the same night.

After they had gone, we wandered back to the centre of the town and found a native shop were we could obtain refreshments in the shape of fried eggs and chip potatoes, beer and lemon squash etc., in which we invested the remainder of our leave money then wandered back to our barracks to rest after a rather enjoyable day spent in sightseeing.

Next morning at 10 o’clock we were all mustered on the Barrack Square, had our names checked by our Officers and then marched back through Colombo with our band leading, to the landing stage and embarked on lighters and were towed back to the transport which was standing out some distance from the shore. So soon as we were all aboard, the “Orsova” up anchored and set sail for Egypt, and within a couple of hours the shores of Ceylon faded in the distance and we had settled down aboard, and went about our various affairs as during the previous portion of the voyage.

The next five days were very fine and hot and the sea was like a vast expanse of glass and was covered by a peculiar substance like slimy scum, the nature of which I was unable to ascertain as none of the seamen seemed to know what it was. We were only required to perform the work necessary to carry on the duties of the ship so that if we were not on duty, we just lounged about in our shirts and trousers, and slept most of the time until the evening when there was generally some kind of amusement going on, in the shape of concerts, lectures etc. The heat at this time was terrific as we were steaming westward near the equator, and to make matters worse, most of the meat we were given to eat was high and complaints were frequent. One day we in No. 16 mess were given a particularly stale joint of mutton for dinner, the smell of which was terrific, so we all held a post mortem and decided that it should be given a proper burial.

Several other messes were in the same plight, so a funeral procession was organised and the offending joints were all placed on a litter and were carried twice round the decks to the tune of mournful music. The procession then halted at the waste chute and the joints were slipped one after the other overboard into the sea, a bugler playing the “last post” the while they were being buried. The incident was rather comical, but it had the desired effect, as in future we received no more “dead” meat for dinner and the cooks were careful that the meat was fresh before they cooked it.