At last the telegram arrives. “We should go head with our trip and not worry. On our arrival at Hongkong it would be seen what steps the English government would take”. So then we start. Aboard the ship there are thirty-one German reservists, all in the first cabin. The world meets death in grand manner! In the second cabin are the French reservists, and even a few Englishmen. Our leader is a Naval Lieutenant, who has joined us from the North German Lloyd Steamer Princess Alice, which has been on her way home from Tsingtao when she received the news of the declaration of war. She immediately changed her course for Manila. When she found out that she was being followed by an English cruiser, she changed her course and took the shortest route to the safety of Philippine waters, running close in along the islands and with all the lights out at night. She has a million pounds of English gold aboard and arrived in Manila about the fifth of August. Amongst us there is a German school teacher from Tsingtao who had been on his way home to Germany. There is also an engineer whose goal had been Tsingtao and who had his wife and child with him. The weather is beautiful, the sea calm and smooth as a mirror, and we pass the time with the usual games. The barkeep says that business was never better. His barroom is always filled, the German always thirsty. Service and food are excellent.
The first and second call reservists are called in. The Hotel Prinz Heinrich is furnished as an auxiliary hospital, The first and second Japanese squadrons go to sea under sealed orders.