“The Germans say they belong to the Turks,” he remarked, with his characteristic laugh. “At any rate, it’s very comforting for us to have them here. After the war, if the Germans win, they will forget all about it and leave the ships to us. If the Germans lose, they won’t be able to take them away from us!” The German Government made no real pretension that the sale had been _bona fide_; at least when the Greek Minister at Berlin protested against the transaction as unfriendly to Greece--naïvely forgetting the American ships which Greece had recently purchased--the German officials soothed him by admitting, _sotto voce_, that the ownership still remained with Germany. Yet when the Entente ambassadors constantly protested against the presence of the German vessels, the Turkish officials blandly kept up the pretence that they were integral parts of the Turkish navy! The German officers and crews greatly enjoyed this farcical pretence that the _Goeben_ and the _Breslau_ were Turkish ships. They took delight in putting on Turkish fezzes, thereby presenting to the world conclusive evidence that these loyal sailors of the Kaiser were now parts of the Sultan’s navy. One day the _Goeben_ sailed up the Bosphorus, halted in front of the Russian Embassy, and dropped anchor. Then the officers and men lined the deck in full view of the enemy embassy. All solemnly removed their Turkish fezzes and put on German caps. The band played “Deutschland über Alles,” the “Watch on the Rhine,” and other German songs, the German sailors singing loudly to the accompaniment. When they had spent an hour or more serenading the Russian Ambassador, the officers and crews removed their German caps and again put on their Turkish fezzes. The _Goeben_ then picked up her anchor and started southward for her station, leaving in the ears of the Russian diplomat the gradually dying strains of German war songs as the cruiser disappeared down stream.