Isolation Complete and Gloomy
28 lines✦
ublishers Cut off from World News for Fourteen Dreary Days—Constitute Themselves a Board of Inquiry and Get ValuableInformation Bearing Upon their Mission Abroad. Pas OURTEEN long days entirely outsideWA (5 ) of world affairs was an experienceef XS hitherto unknown to a galaxy of news-las Ph} paper publishers, wireless messages6 au) being only for our flagship—theO4N4 Otranto se se= Occasionally a flag at half-mast onanother ship of our convoy denoted a death aboard andwas practically all the news we had of the flotilla ofwhich we were a part.Liquor was not sold to soldiers, although there was a baraboard, and civilians and some officers were permitted tobuy. Each member of our party was provided by ourEnglish hosts with a quart of old brandy for preventionof sea sickness, but on the second day out we gave theentire allowance to the ship’s surgeons to be used asmedicine among our American troops suffering frominfluenza and pneumonia.The publishers as a distraction and to gain desiredknowledge decided to turn themselves into a Boardof Inquiry before which they would summon witnessesamong the civilians on board who might enlightenthem upon things pertinent to their trip.A Mr. Crooks of Liverpool thought Ireland incapable ofself government. With a majority in the house, should
✦