Sun. July 11 [11 July 1909] Wrote letters all morning. A Miss Whitaker came to lunch, a strange little parson and another man who was trained at Cambridge under Edward Browne. The Ambassador complained that most of the men who came out from there cd not speak Turkish. At 3.30 we all went down in the launch to tea with Admiral Gamble on the Mas'udiyyeh. The Surtees family and all the secretaries were of the party. The Mas'udiyyeh is about 40 years old. The whole thing is like a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. The men are perfectly excellent, the officers know absolutely nothing, can't be trusted a moment with the handling of a ship. The few Englishmen have to rush from one ship to the other to put things right. The other day they brought a ship out stern first, not having an idea which end ought to come first. But they have more or less licked the torpedo boats into shape; at first they cd not come within a mile of one another. There are thousands of officers and they keep pouring them in at one side while the Admiral shoots[?] them out at the other as not wanted. Not half the sailors have ever been paid. When they ask for coal they have to wait days for it. The Admiral discussed whether if war broke out while he was away cruising he shd break his neutrality and join in! So back and dined with Mr Marling and Mr F [Fitzmaurice]. We sat in the garden and talked till near midnight but Mr F said mainly the old things about the Sultan etc. Note that the Armenians were certainly given cause for their expectations by the first outburst of enthusiasm at the Constitution. Now personal liberty here is much restricted, newspapers supervised, teskerehs asked for, martial law.