... before the declaration of war against South Africa. The War Office, having decided earlier in the year on the adoption of the Mark VI, had placed very large orders with the contractors, probably ... accommodation for the wife andfamily, set sail for Australia a few days after war was declared, in the middle of October, in what was then the finest passenger boat to Australia, the German ship the ... on the evening of May 24, when a fewcavalry actually did cross the River Vaal, at a place called Parisj to the westward of the railway line, the lasttwo days' rations reached French's...