C. Fisher Diary, p.010

Diary Transcription:

Diary Transcription: begin page 10
Friday, December 18, 1914 (continued)

…and having all the invoices in hand, it did not take very long for everything to be passed. Only two of the boxes were opened. At the dock I had been met by Mahmud Ahmed Said, Dr. Reisner’s head reis, who had been sent to help me. He handed me a letter from Sir Ronald Graham, Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, in reply to a letter which Dr. Reisner had written to him, saying that he had given instructions to the officials at Port Said to facilitate my landing. On the strength of this letter, I tried to have the Equipment of the Expedition passed through free of duty, but the Customs officials, after consultation, decided that the letter did not cover the goods, so I aid the regular duty of 8% on the invoice value of the outfit.
I left on the one o’clock train for Cairo making special arrangements with the District manager of the Railway to allow all my boxes to go as baggage. I did not see any evidence of the fortifications which were being made along the Canal, but all along the railway were small pickets, mostly of Indian troops.

End of Page 10