With the Serbs in Macedonia

14 WITH THE SERBS IN MACEDONIA
be Pickfords and Carter Patersons as a lot of the
M.T. were in France ? Nobody knew ; nobody
knew anything. All we heard was mainly
wrong and a demand by the O.C. for spare
springs to combat the bad roads out there was
laughed to scorn. So was a request for spare
ball-races. G. 1098, as usual, was thrown in our
faces, and later on we were absolutely hung up
for both these articles. But this sort of thing
must happen, so let it pass. It is easy to
criticize and be wise after the event, as easy as
it is to make game of the W.O. Let us be
charitable and assume that there is a deeper
wisdom underlying these things than the mere
civilian brain can fathom.
One day a most exciting order came through.
Two subalterns and a hundred men were to
sail for Salonica at once to complete the com-
plement of a transport. That looked like
business, and on the day we parted from these
comrades we ourselves journeyed with all our
vehicles to Bath.
That looked even more like business. Bath
was on the way to Avonmouth, the port whence
all M.T. vehicles for Salonica were shipped.
We were on the point of starting, said the
sanguine, and applications for week-end leave
to say good-bye poured into the company
office.