teries of the enemy's artillery quite enjoyed themselves firing at
us. I suggested to him that, if it was real business, we were in a very
awkward position, but he didn't mind. He thought his balloon was good
enough for anything except to go down, and he didn't intend to do that
until the fighting for the day was over, two o'clock in the afternoon.
And up in the air we stayed. As I had neither pipe nor tobacco and we had
nothing to eat or drink with us, I was not sorry when we set foot on
Mother Earth again. I think it was that night, if not the next, a
Saturday night, that we received a message from the headquarters of the
Duke telling us of the defeat of the Khalifa at Omdurman by the forces in
Egypt under Kitchener. It was welcome news.

Everyone knows the plight our War Office was in _re_ the supply of small
arms ammunition at the beginning of the South African War. Early in 1899
I received two orders, large in their way, totalling some five million
rounds, for the .303 magazine rifle, from Sydney and Melbourne. The rifle
ammunition Mark V was then in use, and very good ammunition it was too.
The introduction of Mark VI was under consideration, and there was a
probability of its replacing Mark V at an early date. I had been watching
with considerable interest the experiments that had been taking place
with the Mark VI, and I was personally far from satisfied that it would
be a success. I decided to supply the order with Mark V, notwithstanding
my general instructions that all stores were to be of the latest
up-to-date pattern introduced into the Service at home. As the first
consignments of the Mark V were shipped, I notified the Victorian and New
South Wales Governments of the steps I was taking. I did not hear
anything further in the matter for some two or three months when, to my
surprise, I received a cable from Victoria, asking me upon what grounds I
was sending out Mark V ammunition and not Mark VI, which, they pointed
out, they understood had been adopted at home. At the same time a member
of one of the firms which were supplying the ammunition called and
informed me that his firm had received an order direct from the
Government of Victoria for two million rounds of Mark VI ammunition,
requesting them to cease forwarding any more Mark V. I immediately cabled
to Victoria that I was not satisfied with the Mark VI ammunition, that I
expected it to be withdrawn at an early date, and that, if they chose to
place or