MANAGEMENT 255 



being a well-known fact that it is next to impossible to 

 get the right stamp of men ; and the sooner we recog- 

 nise the fact that good drivers are essentially a neces- 

 sity the better. There can be no question about this. 

 To look after camels you require men who have owned, 

 bred, and driven camels all their lives who know their 

 ways, habits and characteristics most thoroughly, and 

 who understand all their peculiarities and peccadilloes. 

 Hired drivers as a general rule are utterly worthless 

 scamps, whose sole knowledge of a camel is to have drivers 

 seen him stalk through the streets of a town of which 

 they are the refuse. Or it may be, as sometimes happens, 

 that they have been forced to serve against their will ; 

 but whether or no, as a body they are careless, callous, 

 and cruel, know nothing about their animals, care still 

 less, and illtreat them on every possible occasion. They 

 have no sympathy with or feeling for your cause, and 

 no interest in the animals ; consequently you have no 

 hold on them they desert and leave you in the lurch 

 as soon as they have made enough money, or when 

 they reach the confines of their own country, or, in 

 fact, whenever they get a good opportunity. This re- 

 quires looking into, as of course the well-being of the 

 animals depends in a very great measure, if not en- 

 tirely, on those who are immediately entrusted with 

 them. Of course, a good transport officer can knock 

 some work out of the most useless and unwilling drivers ; 

 but such work after all is very imperfect and unsatis- 

 factory compared with the amount obtained willingly 

 from competent men, an eighth of which is preferable to a 

 whole of the former ; to say nothing of the extra exertion 

 requisite on the part of the transport officer to get even 



