to all kinds of steel and iron work, and railwaymen. All
were tested practically in their respective trades by an expert in that
trade, after which they were graded according to their proficiency and
knowledge, transferred to the engineers, and sent about their proper
business. By this system the cream of the skilled trades was obtained; and
there was the double satisfaction that the men were not only working at the
jobs for which they were best suited, but were helping materially to win
the war.

The scheme went further. As the supply of really skilled men was
necessarily somewhat small, and the need great, the apprentices and
semi-qualified men were eliminated from other units by the same process of
selection, sent to Kantara and given the opportunity of learning more of
their trade, being tested from time to time to learn the measure of their
progress, until they could take their places amongst the qualified men.
Thus a constant supply was more or less assured, and the O.C. of a Field
Company of Engineers requiring, say, a fitter or a wheelwright or a
moulder, merely asked for them in much the same way as one orders a ton of
coal; if the goods, so to speak, were to be had, he got them.

So sedulously were the records of trades kept that the authorities never
lost touch of the men, especially of those engaged in intricate or delicate
trades. On one occasion a skilled instrument-maker journeyed 1200 miles to
Kantara in order to do a job for which he happened to be the only man at
the moment available! And similar cases might be multiplied almost
indefinitely.

While provision was laboriously being made to fit Kantara for its mission
as a great base, means had to be prepared to send forward supplies and
material to the army in the desert, now feeling its way towards Romani. One
of the delights of the Egyptian campaign was that no sooner was one
obstacle overcome than another rose up to bar the way. It was a useful aid
to the development of character, no doubt, and at any rate a powerful
incentive to the acquirement of a comprehensive vocabulary.

There was this ever-recurring question of transport. Hitherto the bulk of
the carrying-work had been done by the much-abused camel, the ideal animal
for the job, for he thrives where a horse will starve, and he need not be
watered more than once every three days, or even less often, if necessary.
His only drawback is his comparative slowness of gait. He can do his steady
two