" 156

BRIGADIER-GENERAL BRYAN MAHON, D.S.O. " 210

MAP OF MAHON'S MARCH " 230

PLAN OF THE BATTLE ON THE MOLOPO ON
MAY 16TH " 248

FACSIMILE OF SIGNED MENU OF THE RELIEF
DINNER AT MAFEKING " 267

PART I

ENGLAND IN TIME OF WAR

I

HOW THE RESERVES CAME UP

From a seat in the paymaster's office of the depot barracks at Bury one
afternoon in November, 1899, I could look either into the barrack yard
or out along the Bolton Road. A four-wheeler clove its way through the
crowd surrounding the gates, and the sentries presented arms to it. It
contained my friend, the paymaster, who presently came upstairs carrying
a bag in which were several hundred pounds sterling--the real sinews of
war. This was the man whose business it was to call up the Reservists,
and he had a very simple way of doing it. He had several books
containing large forms divided by perforation into four parts. The first
was a counterfoil on which was written the Reservist's name and the date
of posting the order; the second was a railway warrant requesting the
railway company to furnish him with a ticket available by the most
direct route from his place of residence to the depot; the third was the
order requiring him to present himself at the barracks on or before a
certain date; and the fourth was a money-order for three shillings,
officially called an advance, but virtually a present from a considerate
Government. On the 11th of the month the paymaster at Bury had signed
about six hundred of these notices, and had seen them posted; on Sunday
and Monday they had begun to fall like bombs on the breakfast tables of
prosperous civilians all over the country; and soon the pieces of blue
paper had made a sad disturbance in several hundreds of cottage homes,
and added several hundred men to the strength of the 2nd Battalion of
the Lancashire Fusiliers. The business of the pay office, or at least my
friend's part of it--a few subalterns rushing up in a hurry to get money
for their various companies; eighty pounds for A, a hundred pounds for
D, and so on--was soon over, and then he told me something of how the
Reserve system works.

All the men in the Reserve have put in at least seven years' service.
They go into the Reserve first for a term of five