The motor-bus in war : $b being the impressions of an A.S.C. officer during two and a half years at the frontBeatson, A. M.
History
The motor-bus in war : $b being the impressions of an A.S.C. officer during two and a half years at the front
Beatson, A. M.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English; World War, 1914-1918 -- Transportation
All the other rations are of equally good quality. The bacon, so much
appreciated, especially in the trenches, where cooking facilities are
not great, is of the best quality Irish. The butter, tinned dairy
butter. The cheese, mostly Canadian Cheddar. The jam, at first of the
proverbial plum and apple variety, was later varied by strawberry,
apricot, marmalade, and occasionally by honey. As for the tea, one can
taste worse in London drawing-rooms, and the bully beef, scorned perhaps
to a certain extent owing to the fact that it in time becomes
monotonous, is nevertheless the finest preserved meat procurable. The
bread is all baked in the A.S.C. field ovens at the Base, and owing to
the amount of moisture purposely left in it, does not readily become
stale. After being kept a week, if a loaf is sprinkled with water and
put into a hot oven for ten minutes or so it comes out as crisp as newly
baked bread. One of the commissariat problems, which, however, has been
solved satisfactorily, was the question of "Native meat," or the ration
of meat for Indian troops serving in Europe. The solution has been
found in the institution of "Native butcheries." A Native of high caste
in India would, of course, not eat any meat that even the shadow of a
European had passed over. In coming to France the Native troops have,
however, been granted certain religious dispensations, not only with
regard to food, but, in the case of Hindus, in being allowed to leave
the boundaries of their own country. Nevertheless, their caste rights
as to food are as strictly observed as the exigencies of active service
allow. The goats and sheep, chiefly Corsican and Swiss, purchased for
their consumption, are sent up in a truck to railhead alive, and are
slaughtered by men of their own caste in a butchery arranged for the
purpose, generally in a field or some open place in close proximity to
the railhead. The Mohammedan will eat only goats or sheep slaughtered
by having their throats cut, and the Hindu, by their being beheaded.
The latter method is carried out in the abattoir by a Native butcher
with the aid of a cavalry sword at one fell swoop, and of the two
methods is certainly to be recommended as being the most rapid and
instantaneous death. I need hardly add that the Native butchery is
always looked on as an object of awe and interest, if not of excitement,
by the French inhabitants, and none the less by English soldiers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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