ery
large building it was unable to house the majority of them. They were
scattered about throughout the city in other hotels and boarding-houses.
Yet Mount Nelson was _the_ place where all met.

Each night the resources of the Mount Nelson were strained. Dinner
parties, music and dancing were the order of the day. Tables had to be
engaged for days previously. A night arrived when the festivities were at
their height. Dinner had begun. The large dining-room was full to
overflowing, with the exception of one small table set for two in the
middle of the room. The _entrees_ were being served and the band had just
finished a spirited selection.

The babble of tongues was all over the room when in walked two gentlemen
in uniform, preceded by the manager of the hotel, making their way to the
empty table set for two. The babble of tongues began to subside. The
first officer following the manager was a tall man with rather a severe
look in his eyes. It happened to be Lord Kitchener, followed by his
personal private secretary. For a moment there came a dead silence,
immediately relieved by the strains of the band beginning an operatic
overture and the dinner proceeded. At the end of dinner all officers in
uniform were notified to interview a staff officer previous to leaving
the hotel. Within two days the number of officers frequenting the Mount
Nelson Hotel was reduced to a minimum. A couple of days afterwards the
manager informed me that he had been instructed the night of the fateful
dinner to give notice to all officers in uniform then staying at the
hotel who could not produce a permit to vacate their rooms. Steps were
also taken to inquire into the positions held by many of the amateur lady
nurses, and those whose services were deemed to be superfluous were
provided with return passages to Europe. Thus ended this episode.

[Illustration: _Photo: Shier, Melbourne_

THE COMMONWEALTH MILITARY BOARD, 1914

_Standing_: Colonel Wallace, R.A.A., Master of Ordnance; Colonel Selheim,
C.B., Quartermaster-General; Colonel Chauvel, C.B., Adjutant-General.
_Seated_: Brigadier-General J. M. Gordon, C.B., Chief of the General
Staff; Mr. Laing, Financial Member.]

An amusing incident occurred at a place called Derdepoort, some ten miles
outside Pretoria, where one of our columns, under General Hutton, was
holding a section of the defences of the capital. I had dispatched their
supplies of winter clothing to them, and it was decided