Several of the correspondents with the forces have com- mented
very adversely on the amount of baggage taken with them by the invaders. For example, the correspondent of the Yorkshire Post says that he saw two waggons being re-embarked which contained not only beds and mattresses and a camp- table, but a knife-cleaning machine,—" one of those circular arrangements weighing about half a hundredweight, and a number of huge rolls of kit, some of them with several white blankets showing." It took, he says, forty minutes to load these two waggons into " the float," and this baggage was the impedimenta of the officers of only one battalion. We do not see that much objection can be made to blankets, grey or white, but a circular knife-cleaning machine certainly seems superfluous. Perhaps the officers would plead that, at any rate, there was not a kitchen-range or a piano, such as some- times accompanied " flying columns" in South Africa. We cannot, however, believe that the knife-cleaner was typical. Certainly the present writer's experience goes to show that the British officer is often content with the very simplest kit on manoeuvres. It remains to be said that the work done by the Navy during the operations was admirable in every particular.
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