At Sea. 7/4/1916

My dear Mother,

I am writing this at sea, somewhere, in heat like a frying pan. There are so many things that we are not allowed to write about, that the difficulty is to know what to write.

However I propose to write what I want and trust to luck as to whether it gets through or not. We arrived at that mysterious place I mentioned in my last letter, one day last week and we were allowed to go ashore to stretch our legs. We had not been in port 2 hours before we were boarded by numbers of kids who all had some article or object they wanted to sell us at exorbitant prices. The beggars have more hide than about ten Australian kids put together and an article such as a moonstone worth 3d. was offered for 3/- and about 4d. worth of coins were tendered for 1/- etc. Good profits, eh!

We were allowed shore at about 2 o’clock and were towed to the wharf on 7 lighters by a tug. We then marched to the Barracks where we tasted English and Japanese beer, at reasonable rates. This was the first beer we had tasted for about a fortnight or so and some of the boys enjoyed it immensely, rather too well in fact.

During our stay we had nearly all our meals at the Barracks and also slept the night there, on the cement floor of the buildings without any blankets.

In the evening Bert Allen and I indulge in our first experience of the far famed rickshaw and we saw the figure of the Buddha in the three alternate that is lying standing and sitting. Of course we had to take our boots off to go inside the Temples. We also saw 2 or 3 beautiful gardens including Victoria Gardens and the Gordon Garden. One of my pals took several photos of Bert and me among the natives and rickshaws etc and I may be able to send you a copy later on.

Life on board is described in my last letter such as the usual boxing tournaments and lectures and concerts etc. Please tell part to give Lily the 25/- I owe her and also not to forget to pay my insurance money. Tell Grace I will write to her on the first opportunity as you see we have to rush things a bit just now to get these letters passed (read) by the censor and passed.

Will close now with love to all from your affect son.

Walter Orsova