FRANCE. 75 



Also, as a matter of fact, a great many of the coast forts 

 are garrisoned wholly or in part by infantry, who perform 

 the service of the guns in addition to their other work ; hence, 

 target practice at these works is not what it should be. Of 

 the 108 batteries of foot artillery only 42 man the coast de- 

 fenses. The colonial (formerly marine) artillery furnishes 28 

 more batteries and 6 companies of workmen for this service ; 

 in other words, on a peace footing there are hardly 500 officers 

 and 10,000 trained artillerymen to man the coast defenses of 

 the whole country. When it is remembered that it would 

 probably require 5,000 men to furnish one relief for the guns 

 of Brest or Toulon alone, the lack of technical personnel is 

 evident. These reasons seem sufficient to account for the 

 fact that target practice in the coast artillery is not so thor- 

 ough as it is in the field artillery ; and yet the allowance of 

 ammunition for practice with the great guns is, from our 

 standpoint, enormously liberal. 



