About forty boats arrived to-day with English, French, and Greek troops. We went to watch the horses and mules being unloaded at the docks; there are more mules than horses; they find them much hardier.
Friday, October 15, 1915.
We had an interesting day; one of the doctors from Lady Paget's came to see me, then the captain from the Abbassieh, who had brought out some of the units and knew the three sisters who were with me. He invited us to lunch on his ship; he had brought in troops from the Dardanelles, and was doing transport work. He told us that he had brought 1,300 and that he had only sufficient life boats for 300. In Salonika we had the Dorsets, the Norfolks, the Herefords, Royal West Kent, Royal Engineers, the Army Service Corps, and the Royal Army Medical Corps, and several other regiments that were going up to Serbia.
The captain asked what boat I had come out on to Serbia. When I said "the Saidieh," he said, "Why, the chief officer is now on my boat, as the Saidieh was torpedoed some time ago"; and he sent for him to see us. It was very pleasant meeting again and hearing his story; he was made captain of another boat, but it had been so much damaged with shell fire that it could not be used.
Saturday, October 16, 1915.
In the afternoon the commander from the battleship H.M.S. Albion came to have tea with us, and invited us to tea on his ship the following day.
We heard to-day that some of the French troops had gone up to the Bulgarian frontier; we also heard that Perot had been taken by the Bulgarians, and that the line between Nish and Uskub had been blown up.
Martial law is in force here, and pickets are all along the front. The English, French, and Greek officers all had to salute each other.
Sunday, October 17, 1915.
This morning we went over two old Greek temples, Demetrius and St. George; they were taken by the Turks and turned into mosques. The Turks had whitewashed all over the mosaic and marble pillars; fortunately the whitewash is crumbling away, and one can see the mosaic through.