"Woe be to the individual who tried to evade my laws. "Given under my hand and seal, this twenty eighth day of July, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen" The reason for delaying the ceremony was that at the time we actually crossed the Equator it was quite dark, so accordingly on the following day, at two o'clock in the afternoon, all the various detachments of troops were paraded on deck and Neptune with his suite came round and chose a few men from each unit to undergo the cleansing ordeal. The gathering round the canvas plunge bath was very picturesque; on a platform at one end of the bath were Neptune, Cleopatra and Neptune's secretary: on another platform alongside the bath were the doctor, barber and their assistants: in the bath were the three bears, and a member of Neptune's policemen were constantly scouting round the vessel and bringing in additional victims. Each uncleansed one was seated in turn on the edge of the bath, duly sounded by the doctor by means of a megaphone, temperature and pulse taken, then liberally lathered with flour paste (put on by means of a whitewash brush) and shaven with a huge silvered wooden razor; while the latter operation was being performed, the victim was gently but firmly assisted into the bath, where the three bears saw to it that he was thoroughly immersed and cleansed. After a good number of men had been ducked in this manner the troops then took matters into their own hands and threw Neptune & Co into the bath, threw busketsful of water upon them and finally turned the hose upon them; then followed a regular melēe, first the sailors then the soldiers obtaining the hose from each other in turns and scattering men in all directions. In this manner quite a large proportion of men got a soaking, for which they had not bargained. This of course closed the proceedings and every man was bound to admit that the afternoon had been one of the merriest he had ever spent - all of us were like so many happy schoolboys. After a very good voyage we arrived at Cape Town at daybreak on Tuesday, Aug 8th. What an impressive sight it is that one sees on entering Cape Town harbour in the early dawn! In this instance we saw the mountain without the usual "table cloth" cloud hiding the summit, but when we left laterr in the day the cloud had quite hidden the plateau. On arrival at Cape Town there was some doubt as to whether we should be allowed to land at all, but at noon, after having had an early dinner, the whole of the troops aboard were disembarked and marched through the principal streets of the city and given a short rest in a park at the foot of the mountain; during this rest a swarm of nigger boys did a roaring trade in oranges and cigarettes, the oranges particularly being eagerly snapped up as we had not had an opportunity of obtaining fruit since we left England. After standing about for a little time we were marshalled together again and by a somewhat different route were marched back to the vessel, the whole "walk" having lasted about two hours. All the men were keenly disappointed that they had not been permitted to spend a little time ashore on their own, and rather than being pleased with their visit to Cape Town they were irritated by having been treated like so many Sunday School scholars out for their Whitsuntide walk. Just a very small proportion of the men were given permission to go into the town as buying parties under the supervision of N.C.O.s. Needless to say tobacco was the most important 3

"Woe be to the individual who tried to evade my laws."Given under my hand and seal, this twenty eight day of July, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen" The reason for delaying the ceremony was that at the time we actually crossed the Equator it was quite dark, so accordingly on the following day, at two o'clock in the afternoon, all the various detachments of troops were paraded on deck and Neptune with his suite came round and chose a few men from each unti to undergo the cleansing ordeal. The gathering rround the canvas plunge bath was very picturesque; on a platform at one end of the bath were Neptune, Cleopatra and neptune's secretary: on another platform alongside the bath were the doctor, barber and their assistants: in the bath were the three bears and a member of Neptune's policemen were constantly scouting round the vessel and bringing in additional victims. Each uncleansed one was seated in turn on the edge of the bath, duly sounded by the doctor by means of a megaphone, temperature and pulse taken, then liberally lathered with flour paste (put on by means of a whitewash brush) and shaven with huge silvered wooden razon; while the latter operation was being performed, the victim was gently but firmly assisted into the bath, where the three bears saw to it that he was thoroughly immersed and cleansed. After a good number of men had been ducked in this manner the troops then took matters into their own hands and threw Neptune & Co into the bath, threw busketsful of water upon them and finally turned the hose upon them; then followed a regular melee, first the sailors then the soldiers obtaining the hose from each other in turns and scattering men in all directions. In this manner quite a large proportion of men got a soaking, for which they had not bargained. This of course closed the proceedings and every man was bounf to admit that the afternoon had been one of the merriest he had ever spent - all of us were like so many happy schoolboys. After a very good voyage we arrived at Cape Town at daybreak on Tuesday, Aug 8th. What an impressive sight it is that one sees on entering Cape Town harbour in the early dawn! In this instance we saw the mountain without the usual "table cloth" cloud hiding the summit, but when we left laterr in the day the cloud had quite hidden the plateau. On arrival at Cape Town there was some doubt as to whether we should be allowed to land at all, but at noon, after having had an early dinner, the whole of the troops aboard were disembarked and marched through the principal streets of the city and given a short rest in a park at the foot of the mountain; during this rest a swarm of nigger boys did a roaring trade it oranges and cigarettes, the oranges particularly being eagerly snapped up as we had not had an opportunity of obtaining fruit since we left England. After standing about for a little time we were marshalled together

"Woe be to the individual who tried to evade my laws."Given under my hand and seal, this twenty eight day of July, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen" The reason for delaying the ceremony was that at the time we actually crossed the Equator it was quite dark, so accordingly on the following day, at two o'clock in the afternoon, all the various detachments of troops were paraded on deck and Neptune with his suite came round and chose a few men from each unti to undergo the cleansing ordeal. The gathering rround the canvas plunge bath was very picturesque; on a platform at one end of the bath were Neptune, Cleopatra and neptune's secretary: on another platform alongside the bath were the doctor, barber and their assistants: in the bath were the three bears and a member of Neptune's policemen were constantly scouting round the vessel and bringing in additional victims. Each uncleansed one was seated in turn on the edge of the bath, duly sounded by the doctor by means of a megaphone, temperature and pulse taken, then liberally lathered with flour paste (put on by means of a whitewash brush) and shaven with huge silvered wooden razon; while the latter operation was being performed, the victim was gently but firmly assisted into the bath, where the three bears saw to it that he was thoroughly immersed and cleansed. After a good number of men had been ducked in this manner the troops then took matters into their own hands and threw Neptune & Co into the bath, threw busketsful of water upon them and finally turned the hose upon them; then followed a regular melee, first the sailors then the soldiers obtaining the hose from each other in turns and scattering men in all directions. In this manner quite a large proportion of men got a soaking, for which they had not bargained. This of course closed the proceedings and every man was bounf to admit that the afternoon had been one of the merriest he had ever spent - all of us were like so many happy schoolboys. After a very good voyage we arrived at Cape Town at daybreak on Tuesday, Aug 8th. What an impressive sight it is that one sees on entering Cape Town harbour in the early dawn! In this instance we saw the mountain without the usual "table cloth" cloud hiding the summit,

"Woe be to the individual who tried to evade my laws."Given under my hand and seal, this twenty eight day of July, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen" The reason for delaying the ceremony was that at the time we actually crossed the Equator it was quite dark, so accordingly on the following day, at two o'clock in the afternoon, all the various detachments of troops were paraded on deck and Neptune with his suite came round and chose a few men from each unti to undergo the cleansing ordeal. The gathering rround the canvas plunge bath was very picturesque; on a platform at one end of the bath were Neptune, Cleopatra and neptune's secretary: on another platform alongside the bath were the doctor, barber and their assistants: in the bath were the three bears and a member of Neptune's policemen were constantly scouting round the vessel and bringing in additional victims. Each uncleansed one was seated in turn on the edge of the bath, duly sounded by the doctor by means of a megaphone, temperature and pulse taken, then liberally lathered with flour paste (put on by means of a whitewash brush) and shaven with huge silvered wooden razon; while the latter operation was being performed, the victim was gently but firmly assisted into

"Woe be to the individual who tried to evade my laws."Given under my hand and seal, this twenty eight day of July, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen" The reason for delaying the ceremony was that at the time we actually crossed the Equator it was quite dark, so accordingly on the following day, at two o'clock in the afternoon, all the various detachments of troops were paraded on deck and Neptune with his suite came round and chose a few men from each unti to undergo the cleansing ordeal. The gathering rround the canvas plunge bath was very picturesque; on a platform at one end of the bath were Neptune, Cleopatra and neptune's secretary: on another platform alongside the bath were the doctor, barber and their assistants: in the bath were the three bears and a member of Neptune's policemen were constantly scouting round the vessel and bringing in additional victims. Each uncleansed one was seate