On the 24th news arrived that the New Guinea expedition had successfully overcome all opposition, and we then determined on the following change of plans, viz. _Minotaur_ and _Ibuki_ to go to Wellington and escort the New Zealanders to Adelaide, while _Australia_ and _Montcalm_, after convoying the auxiliaries and weak warships back from New Guinea to within the shelter of the Barrier Reef, should hunt for the _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_ in the Marshall Islands, whither it seemed probable they were proceeding. This decision altered the composition of the escort of the Australian convoy, and their protection across the Pacific and Indian Oceans was to an important extent confided to a vessel which flew the war flag of Japan. This historic fact should be an additional bond of goodwill among the friendly and allied nations who dwell in the Pacific. Meanwhile the depredations of the _Emden_ in the Bay of Bengal continued. On the 22nd she appeared off Madras, bombarded the Burma Company’s oil tanks, and threw a few shells into the town before she was driven off by the batteries. This episode, following on the disturbance of the Calcutta-Colombo trade route and the numerous and almost daily sinkings of merchant ships in the Bay of Bengal, created widespread alarm, and on October 1 I sent the following minute to the First Sea Lord, proposing, _inter alia_, a concentration on a large scale in Indian waters against the _Emden_. This concentration would comprise _Hampshire_, _Yarmouth_, _Sydney_, _Melbourne_, _Chikuma_ (Japan), _Zemchug_ and _Askold_ (Russian), _Psyche_, _Pyramus_ and _Philomel_—a total of ten—and was capable of being fully effective in about a month. _October 1, 1914._ Secretary. Chief of Staff. First Sea Lord. Three transports, empty but fitted for carrying cavalry, are delayed in Calcutta through fear of _Emden_. This involves delaying transport of artillery and part of a cavalry division from Bombay. The Cabinet took a serious view, and pressed for special convoy. Have you any ship? I should be very sorry to interrupt the offensive operations against _Emden_ for the sake of convoying three empty transports. I was inclined to recommend that the three should put to sea at night with lights out and steer wide of the track. It is 100 to 1 that they would get round safely, and a 1,000 to 1 that two out of the three would get round safely. Let me have your proposals at once. It is clear that the transports have got to go.[58] * * * * *