FARMING AND FOXHUNTING 



one, is that when we were running out of harbour 

 a good old lady ran out of her cottage and waved a 

 Scotsman's bonnet. She was a proud woman that 

 day, she evidently had a soldier for keeps. 



The journey back to Suez calls for very little 

 comment, except that I must mention our stokers 

 had been giving trouble for some weeks, in fact a 

 mutiny broke out one day in New Zealand and the 

 guard with fixed bayonets was called in to quell it. 

 This made the Captain short-handed in his crew, 

 with a consequent drop in speed. However, 

 volunteers from the Army were soon forthcoming, 

 anything for a change. I remember having a week 

 at this stoking of the old ship, but it was a real black 

 job. 



We pulled in again at Melbourne, Adelaide and 

 Colombo, and arrived at the entrance to the Suez 

 Canal on March 30, and in passing through the old 

 ship got into trouble. A very rough wind sprang 

 up and we did hear that the steering was bad. 

 Whatever it was the old ship got stuck on a sand- 

 bank when passing through the Salt Lakes. All 

 sorts of dodges we tried to get her off, first tugs and 

 then disembarking the soldiers, and finally unloading 

 the coal-bunkers, but nothing would move her, and 

 there she stuck for at least a fortnight. This indeed 

 was a setback, particularly to some of us farmers 

 who were due back home for the spring and summer 

 work. However, four of us set to work making 

 enquiries about getting our discharge, and eventually 

 this arrived from the War Office, and on April 8 we 

 took passage on a P. & O. liner for Marseilles. 



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