contrived to procure passes for
them. Even in the shed the scene was one of extraordinary confusion. At
intervals of about half an hour detachments were marched in and formed
up at one end of the shed, where they left their bundles and heavy kit,
and whence they were marched in single file up the gangway of the ship.
With the exception of the Manchesters, all the troops were in khaki, and
were easily distinguishable from the dark-coloured mass of civilians.
Thus there was always a yellow pool of colour in the midst of the black
mass, and all the morning a thin yellow line flowed from the pool to the
ship's gangway. As often as one looked, during the whole morning, there
was a line of men in the act of ascending the gangway. One felt as
though one had fallen asleep for a moment and dreamed, and waked again
to find the same men in the same position, so little did the appearance
of things change. It was really a picture that one looked at, for the
colours and bold outlines remained constant; the eye at times grew used
to the minute movement, and refused to notice that the picture was
preserved only because the same things were being done over and over
again by hundreds of different people. The same greetings as friends
recognised the newly-arrived man, the same hurried words, the same
faltering voices, the same desperate embraces, the same endless tramp
from the formed ranks to the ship, the same tears. The absorption of so
many acute personal emotions into one revolving routine was the most
amazing part of it; the stream of discipline and system ran swift and
deep here, drawing into its flood even the most sacred and intimate of
human experiences, and turning into a pattern the parting of husband
from wife and father from child. When at length one became used to the
picture one began to notice the elements of its composition, and only in
watching them could one gain relief from the overburdening sense of
personality submerged in a system. The little dramas were very strange
and very affecting. I can only give a few examples out of dozens that I
watched.

As the troops came in at the door, marching four deep, the crowd formed
on each side, and those who had friends in the detachment tried to get a
prominent place in the front rank of the crowd, where they could attract
the attention of the soldiers as they passed. The men were not hurried,
and they were marching at ease, so there was generally time for a few
words and a ki