rations," at the other "chocolate rations," enough to sustain a man amid
hard and exhausting work for thirty-six hours. The chocolate rations
consist of three cubes and can be eaten in the dry state; once, however,
I came across a spare emergency tin, and found that with boiling water a
single cube made enough liquid chocolate for ten men, a cup each. People
make a great fuss in England if they don't get three or four meals a
day, but a healthy man can easily fight with much less nourishment than
this. I have seen Turkish troops during the Cretan insurrection live on
practically nothing else than a few beans and a little bread, and on
this meagre and precarious diet they fought like heroes. In the Sudan a
few bunches of raisins will keep one going all day. At the same time,
these things are to some extent relative to the individual. I have known
huge athletic men curl up in no time because they couldn't get three
meals a day on a campaign, whereas others, of half their build and
muscle, may bear privations infinitely better. It is annoying to find
here and there in the newspapers querulous letters from men at the front
complaining that plum puddings and sweetmeats haven't reached them, and
that their Christmas fare was only a bit of bully beef and a pint of
beer. These men don't represent the rank and file of the army a bit. The
English soldier is better fed and clothed and looked after than any
other fighting man in the world, except possibly the American, and the
manly soldier is not in the habit of whining after the fashion of these
letters because he doesn't get quite as good a dinner on the veldt as he
does in the depôt at home.

The military authorities at De Aar exercised the utmost stringency in
refusing permission to unauthorised civilians to stay in the camp or
pass through it. These regulations were absolutely necessary. The
country round De Aar was full of Dutchmen, who were, with scarcely an
exception, thoroughly in sympathy with the enemy, and throughout the