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interested.
The British officers at the school acted as instructors. The school staff for the rest were Chinese, and I was amazed at the long hours they expected the students to work. As we had no relief instructors, I was unwilling that the lectures should exceed six hours a day; but on top of this the Chinese Commandant produced a long syllabus of other subjects, some of which, it appeared to me, hardly fitted into the picture. He even wanted us to start teaching the students English! The wretched students had to start work at six in the morning, and with two brief breaks for meals, at 10 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, they worked up to six in the evening. The ordinary Chinese rations were, by western standards, quite inadequate, and the consequence was that the students often seemed tired out. The situation was aggravated by the heavy incidence of malaria and scabies. The former sapped the strength of the students and the latter often broke out in boils, caused by scratching, so that students could only limp to and from classes and demonstrations. The cheerful spirit with which the students faced these hardships only increased our admiration for them; at the same time we were not so impressed with the notions of the Chinese officers.
We were handicapped by the lack of wireless for communication with the Mission in Chungking. We had to use the Chinese civil telegraph lines, which had become somewhat disorganised by the pressure of war. They, nevertheless, did serve us well enough, and we could usually expect a signal to reach Chungking within three or four days of our handing it in. Perhaps, the absence of W/T mattered less than we thought, because nobody in Chungking was really very interested in us.
In April, two more officers joined us. One of these, Pitt, had served in the Navy; he brought us a useful selection of tools and equipment from one of the British Upper Yangtze gunboats which had been dismantled.
The reinforcement was most welcome as we could now spare two officers to go forward to decide on the sites of the supply dumps, which we intended to establish at forward points near the areas where the teams we were training would operate. Leo and Mac went off on this work, and it was largely due to their initiative that any small success with which our efforts may have met is due. Leo was a tower of strength: besides a thorough knowledge of his work, he had that quiet, persuasive way,
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