Cecil Mills Collection - Wallet 2 - Part 16 of 22

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are not allowed to come too close. This is a  
Garrison Town & our men are not allowed 
to land. A few have scaled down the  
anchor chains, but have been quietly pinched 
& brought back. The kids diving for money  
were very clever this afternoon. They did  
not miss a silver coin as far as I  
could see & needless to say they were  
thrown a good way from the divers to  
make them earn the coin. The distance  
some of the kids swam underneath the  
water was incredible & instead of being  
puffed were quite ready to take it on 
P 11  
again at once. Unfortunately for the kids, our  
chaps are all broke - not having been paid 
since end of Feb. The men are very sore about  
the pay business - do not blame them. The Col. 
has made a bad break in not paying when he  
shcould have. Doubtless the remainder of the  
Regt have been paid on the trip - but our men  
have hardly a bob to bless them selves with   
When we got in tonight we heard that a  
big ship had

again at once. Unfortunately for the 
kids our chaps are all dead hard up, not 
having been paid since the end of February. 
The men are very sore about the pay 
business & I don't blame them. I think the  
Colonel has made a bad break in not 
paying when he could have. Doubtless 
the remainder of the Regt have been paid 
on the trip, but our poor blighters have hardly 
got a bob to bless themselves with. When we  
got in tonight we heard that a big ship had 
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12 
been hit coming across from Alexandria. 
Fortunately there were no troops on her & we 
hear she was not "mortally wounded", but is 
being towed in. We may see her tomorrow. 
She was torpedoed pretty close to where we were 
last night. They had a go at another Transport 
but missed, which was fortunate. It ought 
to be pretty fair sailing from here to our 
destination, as we are now fairly well out of 
the danger zone as far as the Mediterranean 
is concerned. I am going to try & post this 
tomorrow, but don't know whether I shall be 
able to do so or not. Hope to send you a Cabl 
shortly after we land. Well old SweetHeart. 
I do hope you are having a happy time at 
Kempsey, & not worrying any more than you 
can help about your old man. Suppose by now 
our little larrikin has to do without his mummy 
ha. Hope you are able to put on a bit of condit- 
ion when you do not have to provide for him also 
Dearie do you ever have that nasty old complaint  
now? Hope it’s not worrying you now at all. 
Heaps [[old?]] love old Pet let the others know I'm OK as 
usual. Have not had time to write yet. Your own old man 
Cecil.

Malta. O.A.S. 
abroad 
  
29 
Mrs. C.B. Mills 
C/. Dr A [[Burnie?]] 
“Kinellan” 
Dalley St 
Waverley 
New South Wales 
Australia. 

On Board the Khedival  
Mail Liner.  Osmavich 
At Sea. 27 : 3 : 16. 
  
Well old Darling, we left Malta this morning 
at 8 am after a stop of about 40 hours & they 
were jolly, old hours I can tell you.  Don't think 
any of the troops were sorry we had the Boiler 
trouble, as we got safely to Malta in spite of 
it.  The poor old "Minneapolis" foundered, they 
could not get her into Malta.  We must have 
passed pretty close to where she was hit, but 
we did not see anything thank goodness.  Well 
to tell you about my day ask me at Valetta. 
Had from 9 till 1, only, as we expected to sail 
at 2 PM.  Got a "Bumboat & away to the landing 
steps.  The Maltese handle these boats in a  
marvellous fashion & get good pace out of 
them.  Next through a huge tunnel arrangement 
& came to a lift, for the sum of 1/2' each we 
had a ride in the lift up to the top 205 feet  
non stop run.  This brought us to where the  
town was fairly level & from the walls there 
is a grand view over the Harbour.  It reminded 
me of Sydney Harbour in some ways, tho of course 
it is very tiny in comparison, but the shores 
  
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2/ 
are so steep almost everywhere & the stone is  
all sand stone & the buildings are all made 
from it.  We had a plan of campaign mapped  
out which of course we did not stick to at all. 
Don't think one ever does on going to a new 
place.  We got a sort of cab arrangement, with a 
[[canopy?]] over the top of it for 2/- an hour for the 
3 of us.  Proper fare is 1s/8 per hour & after a 
while an old bummer attached himself to us 
as a guide.  Went for a drive through the  
Strada Reale & stopped at Govt House & had a 
look through the gardens.  Being Sunday the 
Armoury (one of the most interesting sights) was 
not open to visitors.  Next we went to St 
Dominics Church & had a look in while 
a Service was on.  Very nice church, with good 
Altars and Statuary inside, but St Johns 
Cathedral which we visited next was beautiful. 
The R.C. religion has some wonderful traditions 
behind it.  It is all R.C. here & the place seems 
to be over run with Priests and Brothers &c. 
There are no seats as we have them in our Churches. 
Just ordinary chairs are used & shifted about

3 
to wherever they may be required.  The ceilings 
are beautifully decorated in this Church.  There  
was a service on when we went in first, so we 
stayed & listened to the singing, which was 
very fine.  After the Service we were shown 
through a great deal of it, but we would 
require a whole day to have the whole  
history of peach portion explained fully. 
The Knights of St John seem to have done 
everything here up to the time the British 
took the Islands from the French.  The Grand  
Masters of this order are all buried in the 
Cathedral, & as there were 28 of them altogether,  
& they nearly all have a chapel of their own, the  
history takes some explaining.  There are some  
very fine oil paintings in the private 
Grand Master Chapels.  The most celebrated is 
one by Michael Angelo,  The Beheading of  
John the Baptist.  Salome is there with 
her dish to hold the head, & the executioner 
has John down on the ground, with a huge 
knife behind his back, while through the 
iron bars of the cell, there are some of the  
Guards looking through, to see the execution

4 
carried out.  There are also some fine oils 
of the Crucifixion.  Guarding the Altar at 
one side of the Church are large silver doors, 
big solid bars of silver.  On the other side 
there used to be similar gates of Gold, but 
Napoleons soldiers collared the gold ones.  The 
silver ones were saved by painting them black. 
One would think they would have painted the 
gold ones first.  Altho it was Sunday a great 
number of the shops were open & the narrow streets 
were pretty crowded in places.  The markets were 
in full swing, so we had to get out & have a  
wander through.  All sorts of things for sale. 
Meats, provisions, fruit &c. & the women were 
there, same as at our markets, looking for 
bargains.  Next place we went to was the 
Museum.  Only a small place, but very interesting, 
full of early Maltese relics, some very ancient,  
& of course the Coats of Arms belonging to the  
28 Grand Masters.  What fascinated me most 
was a Statue of Hercules.  When discovered in  
some ruins it was minus the head & another 
head was been made & fixed on.  The new head 
although it appeared to be splendidly done, only

5/ 
showed off the rest of the statue to greater 
advantage.  It was only about 2' 9" high, 
but it was perfect. one could see the ripple of the  
muscles under the skin.  The proportions of the  
man was so marvellous.  No part of him over 
developed.  I would have loved to call round for  
it after dark.  After this the guide who had 
adopted us, reminded us that if we wanted to go 
to the lace shops, we'd have to get busy.  This is 
where I suffered. We went to old Formosa's, the  
place where one is supposed not to be taken 
down, & then the laces were produced.  It was 
rotten luck I did not have any money, but 
I had lent to the other chaps more than half 
of Schuchards tenner, & here were all these 
lovely things.  I could not for the life of me 
pick out anything for you that I had the  
money to buy.  The things I wanted most of all 
were about £ 7/ 8, so eventually I got 7 yards 
of narrow insertion, 5 yards of insertion a little 
wider, a Hank that they told me could also be 
used as a collar by taking out the centre, & a  
linen "Doille"D'oyley" with Maltese Crosses worked 
in.  The lace is supposed to be silk & I thought