courtesy and consideration shown us by every officer and man
from your ship with whom we have been brought in contact."

He sent back a verbal message that there was no alternative but to put
us all, women included, on the _Wolf_, as the _Hitachi_ had no coal, but
that they should be landed at a neutral port from the next boat caught,
if she had any coal.

We were still not satisfied with this, and I again protested to our
Captain against what was equivalent to putting our women in a German
first-line trench to be shot by our own people. He replied that we need
have no anxiety on that score. "We know exactly where all your cruisers
are, we pick up all their wireless messages, and we shall never see or
go anywhere near one of them." Whether the Germans did know this, or
hear our ships' wireless I cannot tell, but it is certainly true that we
never, between September and February, saw a British or Allied war
vessel of any sort or kind, or even the smoke of one (with the single
exception to be mentioned later), although during that time we travelled
from Ceylon to the Cape, and the whole length of the Atlantic Ocean from
below 40 deg. S. to the shores of Iceland, and thence across to the shores
of Norway and Denmark. But notwithstanding the Captain's assurance, we
still felt it possible that on the _Wolf_ we might be fired on by an
Allied cruiser, and some of us set about settling up our affairs, and
kept such documents always on our persons, so that if we were killed and
our bodies found by a friendly vessel our last wishes concerning our
affairs might be made known. I wrote my final directions on the blank
sheet of my Letter of Credit on the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Bank, which,
after being cancelled, I now keep as a relic of a most anxious time when
I was a very unwilling guest of the Kaiser's Navy.

The food on the _Hitachi_ was now getting poorer and poorer. There was
no longer any fruit, cheese, vegetables, coffee, or jam. All the eggs
were bad, and when opened protested with a lively squeak; only a very
little butter remained, the beer was reserved for the ship's officers,
iced water and drinks were no longer obtainable, and the meat became
more and more unpleasant. One morning at breakfast, the porridge served
had evidently made more than a nodding acquaintance with some kerosene,
and was consequently quite uneatable. So most of the passengers sent it
away in disgust. But one of them, ever anxious to please hi