rsync - May 2004 - force directory creation in daemon mode

is there a setting in daemon mode that determines whether the daemon can 
create non-existent directories?

i've set up a really basic daemon locally that seems to have no problem 
doing it if i use the -R flag like this:

rsync -R somefile.tar machine.com::archive/2004/05/data.tar

this happily created the 2004 and 05 directories.  however when i try to 
do this with a partner, i get

mkstemp /2004/05/.file.jpg.MN5G9Q failed: No such file or directory

i don't think it's a permissions problem, the whole tree seems to be 
owned by the same username.

-jsd-