SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1898. 
297 
Army Establishments, Home Defence, 1892*). It also shows the amount 
which could be deducted from each if the Infantry ammunition were 
separated from that of the Artillery. This table serves as a foundation 
for Table B, which compares the road space occupied by the ammuni¬ 
tion columns organized as at present with those organized as proposed. 
Table C gives a similar comparison for the batteries themselves of 
the A.C., while Table D combines the two preceding and gives the 
exact total space occupied by the Artillery of an A.C. under the two 
systems. The total difference is 2,700 yards. Distributed over three 
roads the difference is only 900 yards on each road, a small price to pay 
for the advantages of a better weapon. 
The immense importance of the work of ammunition columns would 
have to be recognized. 
Cadres for the full number required would have to be kept up in 
time of peace and constantly used. When not being manoeuvred with 
the brigade division special attention would be devoted to cross country 
marching. 
Although spoken of as ammunition columns, the new units would be 
better described as the second echelons of wagons. They would not 
receive, nor expect to receive, any orders from their Bde. Dn. Com¬ 
manders. It would be their duty to make their way to the front, across 
country when necessary, and to report their arrival to their Bde. Dn. 
Commanders at the earliest possible moment after firing has commenced. 
Stringent regulations would have to be issued that on no account are 
ammunition columns to be blocked, and in time of peace the other arms 
should be habituated to the constant presence in the field of numerous 
columns, making their way independently to the front in whatever 
manner seems best to them. 
So far as the Parks are concerned they would remain very much as 
at present, but with the exception that, to save space on the roads, the 
additional wagons carrying the extra rounds, over and above those now 
provided for, would only be drawn by one pair of heavy horses each. 
Sooner or later it seems certain that steam traction (or other motor 
power) must be applied to military uses, and an enterprising nation 
might initiate something of the sort. The saving in length of columns 
would be very great—the possibility of danger is, with modern ammu¬ 
nition and methods of packing, so small as not for one moment to be 
allowed to weigh against the advantages. Of course proper engine 
drivers .and a few fitters and other mechanics would have to be with 
the park. 
3. Difficulty of keeping up the supply of Ammunition to the guns 
at the required rate when in action. —This could be overcome by an 
extension of the portable magazine system to the whole packing of 
all the carriages ; shells would no longer be packed individually but 
in groups of three or more, fastened together by a steel band or 
some such contrivance, each group having its cartridges with it in the 
same magazine. Each of these would be removed bodily from the 
wagon and supplied to the gun holus bolus. 
The gun being non-recoiling, the wagons might be brought up much 
closer to them than at present. 
4. The greater complication of (fun and Mounting unfitting 
it for service in the Field. —This is a vague and general objection 
* Columns for service abroad apparently only differ in the addition of one wagon for 
tents. 
