riting all details of the proposed
organization for his future consideration. In the meantime it was
necessary to find some suitable premises to be the headquarter offices of
the new corps. In the afternoon I looked round Bloemfontein and was
fortunate to secure quite a large residence belonging to a near relation
of President Steyn.

In preparing the tables of personnel as desired by the Commander-in-Chief,
I restricted myself to the contingents that had already arrived and
those on their way from the Australian Colonies. Next day I submitted the
details I had worked out. They were approved, and I was asked if I had
sufficient knowledge of the units already in South Africa and those
expected to arrive from Canada and New Zealand. If so they were to be
included in the scheme. I had not any particular difficulty in carrying
out Lord Roberts' wishes in this respect as, during my few days' stay in
Capetown, while I was waiting to proceed to Bloemfontein, I had asked
for and had been supplied with that very information by General Forestier
Walker's staff officers.

There were sufficient companies of the Imperial Mounted Infantry
scattered about in the country to form four regiments of four companies
each. So that, by forming four separate corps, a regiment of Imperial
troops was available for each. In working out the distribution of the
Overseas Contingents it was found that by allotting (a) to the First
Corps the whole of the Canadians; (b) to the second the New South Wales
and Western Australian contingents; (c) to the third the Victorian, South
Australian and Tasmanian contingents, and (d) to the fourth the
Queenslanders and New Zealanders, each corps would number some fifteen
hundred officers and men without the departmental troops attached.

The above distribution was approved. I was then appointed Chief Staff
Officer for Overseas Colonials on Lord Roberts' Staff, and ordered to
assemble all the units concerned and organize them at Bloemfontein with
as little delay as possible into corps as above. Distinguished mounted
infantry officers were selected to command the four corps which were to
be known as a brigade, namely, Alderson, Henry, Pilcher and De Lisle.
Shortly afterwards orders were issued for a similar organization to be
carried out in the case of the mounted units raised in South Africa to be
likewise called a brigade, the two brigades forming a division. General
Hutton was selected for the command of the Ove