The beautiful Florentine palace, the residence of the British Ambassador, had a few windows smashed, and two large hotels owned by French societies were also damaged.
This Jingo crowd was mostly composed of people wearing the fez, but of rather Western appearance. Some of them, fair haired, and of true Teutonic bearing, did not leave any doubts about their nationality, some bore the mark of their Jewish descent, some belonged to the international mob of all big seaports. I don't know if amongst the crowd there was a single real Turk.
As I write, in the large square outside the Arsenal, military exercises under the command of Turkish and German officers are going on. The Germans attached to the Turkish army or to the Embassy in Constantinople have organised all the young Germans into a regular troop. Now every one of them is acting as an instructor, and probably before long they will have a uniform and an official status in the Turco-German army.
During the last two weeks trains loaded with arms, ammunition of all kinds, Red Cross requisites, and even guns have been arriving from the north. An enormous quantity of sea mines has been sent down--evident sign that the Germans intend to follow in the Dardanelles the same tactics of naval war they are following in the North Sea.
A large part of the Fleet, I really don't know if I have to call it the Turkish fleet or the Allied fleet, or perhaps the German fleet, has come back into the Bosphorus. The names of the vessels are, of course, quite Turkish. The _Goeben_ was rechristened _Sultan Selim_; the _Breslau_ got instead the new name of _Medilla_, which means _Mitilen_, in Turkish.
The bridge on the Golden Horn is open, and yesterday the _Goeben_ went right across the long bay and dropped anchor outside the Arsenal. Then on the ship began a sort of feverish work. A number of large flat-bottomed boats were sent out from the Arsenal loaded with workmen, who proceeded to do some mysterious repairs on board. It was possible to hear the continuous hammering, but the distance did not allow me to see what kind of work was going on.
Certainly no great damage had been done to the ship because, while the repairs were going on, a large quantity of ammunition and numerous cases which looked as though they contained foodstuffs were lifted on board with the help of two big cranes.