y outfitter's.

The cooking kit I carry is, or was, in use in the German army. It is
made of aluminum,--weighs about as much as a cigarette-case, and takes up
as little room as would a high hat. It is a frying-pan and coffee-pot
combined. From the Germans it has been borrowed by the Japanese, and one
smaller than mine, but of the same pattern, is part of the equipment of
each Japanese soldier. On a day's march there are three things a man
must carry: his water-bottle, his food, which, with the soldier, is
generally carried in a haversack, and his cooking kit. Preston has
succeeded most ingeniously in combining the water-bottle and the cooking
kit, and I believe by cutting his water-bottle in half, he can make room
in his coffee-pot for the food. If he will do this, he will solve the
problem of carrying water, food, and the utensils for cooking the food
and for boiling the water in one receptacle, which can be carried from
the shoulder by a single strap. The alteration I have made for my own
use in Captain Preston's water-bottle enables me to carry in the
coffee-pot one day's rations of bacon, coffee, and biscuit.

[Picture: The component parts of the Preston cooking kit]

[Picture: German Army cooking kit after use in five campaigns. All of
these articles pack inside the kettle]

In Tokio, before leaving for Manchuria, General Fukushima asked me to
bring my entire outfit to the office of the General Staff. I spread it
out on the floor, and with unerring accuracy he selected from it the
three articles of greatest value. They were the Gold Medal cot, the
Elliott chair, and Preston's water-bottle. He asked if he could borrow
these, and, understanding that he wanted to copy them for his own use,
and supposing that if he used them, he would, of course, make some
restitution to the officers who had invented them, I foolishly loaned
them to him. Later, he issued them in numbers to the General Staff. As
I felt, in a manner, responsible, I wrote to the Secretary of War, saying
I was sure the Japanese army did not wish to benefit by these inventions
without making some acknowledgment or return to the inventors. But the
Japanese War Office could not see the point I tried to make, and the
General Staff wrote a letter in reply asking why I had not directed my
communication to General Fukushima, as it was not the Secretary of War,
but he, who had taken the articles. The fact that they were