Southern Indian Ocean

Heard that Tjilatjap was completely destroyed in the past few days – that was the last of Java’s usable ports. It’s only a matter of time now. I feel sorry for these damned hard-headed Dutchmen – they refuse to look facts in the face – or perhaps they saw them and wouldn’t admit them to themselves. All those poor Dutch girls should have been  evacuated to Australia – I don’t envy them.

It’s cold as hell, even though it is early fall down here. We have very crowded quarters on one of the lower decks. As soon as we dump her ship load of Australians (5,000) we’ll have much better quarters. We are headed for one of the three following ports, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney. Which it will be, I don’t know, but I’m hoping for Melbourne, as I had my trunk forwarded from Lennon’s Hotel in Brisbane to the Australia Hotel in Melbourne.