ent
case the above statement will account for the fact that the maps
provided by the War Office at the outbreak of the South African war
were pronounced by the Royal Commission on that war to have been,
"with perhaps one exception, very incomplete and unreliable"
(paragraph 261).

* * * * *

These matters preparatory to the war were not, in the ordinary work of
the departments, separated by any distinct break from the routine
necessary after hostilities had begun.

_The Distribution of responsibility_ between the several offices in
regard to the despatch of an army to the field was as follows. The
Adjutant-General's department was charged with all that affected the
actual personnel--the flesh and blood--in such matters as the necessary
qualifications of age or service, the completion of cadres with
specialists, and the maintenance of recruiting. It was the province of
the Military Secretary's department of the Commander-in-Chief's office
to select the staffs and allot the commands. The provision of equipment,
clothing, and ordnance supplies was the duty of the Director-General of
Ordnance; with the Quartermaster-General rested the provision of animals
to complete the war establishment, supplies of food, and, in conjunction
with the Admiralty, arrangements for sea transport. The two departments
of the Director-General and Quartermaster-General, long before the final
sanction was given, had worked out on paper the details of future
requirements.

[Sidenote: Personal action at War Office.]

Apart from those proposals of the Commander-in-Chief to which it had not
been possible for Her Majesty's Government to accede, for the reason
already given, the several officers at Headquarters had done what they
could to make for possible future events such preparation as did not
involve expenditure. Sir Evelyn Wood, both as Quartermaster-General and
as Adjutant-General, carried on a vigorous private correspondence with
the several General Officers Commanding at the Cape, and it was at his
instance that as early as the autumn of 1896 contracts were made with
Messrs. Weil, who had complete command of the Cape market, for the
supply of horses, mules, and wagons at short notice when called for. He
sent for one of the firm to come to England, but a decision was given in
the spring of 1897 against immediate action. In April, 1898, he again
asked that the whole subject, both of transport and of the despat