LOADING 177 



and so long as they get on somewhere and anyhow they 

 are perfectly happy. To start with, then, your fatigue 

 arrives a discontented, grumbling lot, totally ignorant 

 of the work they are about to do. They begin by throw- 

 ing the loads on anyhow and everywhere. As a rule it 

 is all the same to them, for they are not going with the 

 convoy. They know nothing and, what is more, they 

 care still less about a nice and equal balance of the 

 load. Their only way method it cannot be called 

 consists in chucking on the first thing that comes to 

 hand, regardless as to how it is rolled or packed and 

 fastened on. I have frequently seen a load at least 50 Ib. 

 heavier on one side than on the other ; consequently, 

 all one's time is taken up in supervising and instructing 

 these men how to load, and it is hours before the convoy 

 is ready to start. This is no exaggeration, and only 

 transport officers who like myself have tramped thou- 

 sands of miles and carried tons of stores can realise 

 what it is to deal with Tommy Atkins on active service, 

 especially if he has never been to India. Only when I 

 have been without drivers and in a state of utter help- 

 lessness have I ever tried to make any use of them, but 

 even when I have been short-handed I have entirely 

 dispensed with their services from choice. You may 

 lay it down as an axiom that loading camels with 

 fatigue parties of soldiers is a most pernicious system, 

 and one to be avoided, unless the authorities take the 

 matter in hand, and set to work seriously to initiate a 

 system of instruction in this branch of camel manage- 

 ment, which, like every other question in connection 

 with it, requires a thoroughly systematic and practical 

 course of training ; and until our men are taught to 



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