This service is frequently so unpopular that, sooner than leave the
boundaries of their native country, the impressed drivers desert,
leaving their animals in the hands of the transport authorities or
take them away with them. . . . For the above reasons I should
recommend that all transport for a campaign should be the property
of Government."
In commenting on this subject, Lord Wolseley relates that when
serving in China with Indian troops he "awoke one morning and found
that all our drivers had bolted. Our transport consisted of carts
supplied by the Chinese Government, by contractors, and by the
country generally. I do not think that the carts had been carried
away, but all the mules and men had disappeared except three drivers
who belonged to me. I was very much astonished that these men had
not bolted also. I had a small detachment of cavalry with me and a
very excellent duffadar in charge of it. I asked him how he had
managed to keep these drivers--having some time before said that
unless he looked after them well he would never get to Pekin. He
replied, with some hesitation: 'I remember what you told me, and the
fact is I tied the tails of those three men together, overnight, and
then tied them to the tent pole, and put a man over them.
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