29 
MILITIA FIELD ARTILLERY. 
BT \ 
CAPTAIN J. 0. WRAY, R.A., 
Adjutant of the Honourable Artillery Company. 
THE country is in want of more Field Artillery (at alow price). I General con. 
propose to show in this paper in what manner, I believe, this want can 8lderatl0us 
be supplied. Three years ago I should have scoffed at the idea of the 
supply of field guns by the auxiliary forces, and it is only since my 
service with the Honourable Artillery Company that the certainty of 
success has come home to me. 
Being at present adjutant of the Honourable Artillery Company, I 
feel a good deal of diffidence in dragging them into this matter, as 
however they are the cause of my change of opinion, it is impossible 
for me to avoid it. 
Those officers of the Royal Artillery who have seen these batteries 
at Aldershot during the last two years, will, I think, agree that they 
are really mobile Field Artillery, that is that they are capable of 
travelling fast over rough ground, of forming line correctly and quickly, 
followed, when necessary, by a final advance into position at the gallop 
without loss of time in coming into c action/ 
The Government at present grant a sum of £100 a year, per 4-gun 
position battery, for the expense of providing horses, and the regu¬ 
lations lay down that the battery is to go out mounted four times a 
year. This is, therefore, an allowance of £25 per mounted drill, which 
is sufficient for the purpose, but it is obvious that with this amount of 
mounted work (four drills) only very moderate proficiency in field 
movements can be attained. To turn the position batteries of Volun¬ 
teer Artillery into a really mobile force, would, I consider, cost at the 
very least another £800 a year per battery, and would even then only 
succeed where the local circumstances in the way of drill-ground are 
favourable. Except for preliminary drill a large grass field is quite 
useless for the purpose. Rough and extensive ground is required over 
which long and rapid advances can be practised. With drill in a field 
they will reach a certain standard of very moderate efficiency, and in 
spite of every effort there will be no further improvement. 
Let me at once say that I am aware that there are a few of the 
present position batteries which can be classed as Field Artillery, but 
they each owe this to some great initial advantage, such, for instance, 
as that of the 3rd Kent A.V. ; whose men are recruited from the Royal 
1. VOL, XXV. 
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