TCD MS 10247/12/47 folio 12
Augt 17th [1914] Monday
Nice day but cool. No news in the papers of any definiteness. It seems as if Turkey were not to be trusted & were thimble-rigging about the Goeben & Breslau. In afternoon I drove C.W.W. up to Bally A. for tennis. Mrs B said she heard on very good authority that “the Black Watch had been wiped out“ I earnestly hope it is not so, it is horrible to think what may be going on. One of the people there I think it must have been Miss Hamilton said when coming over by the mail a night or two ago she was first asked “was she an alien?” then told she was travelling at her own risk & as soon as they started from Holyhead all lights were put out & they were left in complete darkness for the crossing. It gives one pause if they consider such precautions necessary in so sheltered a part of the channel. They also had heard a wild tale of a Norwegian boat arriving at Arklow saying she had been chased by two German cruisers, but as some of the crew of the Norwegian vessel were German she was not allowed to come in. – On returning home I found that the Menzies had been giving an extraordinary account of how Edinburgh was completely fortified & entrenched, all the people with flats looking out on the ‘Forth’ dispossessed, all the schools & colleges etc turned into hospitals & many farm-houses in the surrounding country in favourable positions, commandeered & fortified, while in Fife all