458 
Q.F. GUNS FOE FIELD AETILLEEY. 
I think our discussion to-day has been an exceedingly valuable sup¬ 
plement to the essays which have been given in. I had made a note 
beforehand on certain points which it seemed to me had not been 
adequately touched upon in the essays, not through the fault of the 
essayists but because of the circumstances under which the essays were 
written; that is to say that they happened unfortunately to be com¬ 
posed just before there had been any war trials of the quick firing 
gun and before any good quick firer could be seen by them. Those 
difficulties have in some measure been realised. Lord Charles Beres- 
ford suggested just now that two of the batteries that were employed at 
the Atbara were quick firing batteries, at least they called them so. Of 
course the definition of a quick firing gun is rather a dubious matter 
at this moment, but out of the three batteries that were present two 
were called quick firing batteries. 1 And similarly at Santiago cer¬ 
tainly the Spaniards, and I think the Americans, have been using 
some quick firing guns; I suppose because sailors have been always 
ahead of us as gunners in all those matters and a good many Spaniards 
were landed from the fleet. I think they landed some field service 
guns from the fleet. 2 
Then I would venture to say humbly to Colonel Hale that when he 
says “ It is not you gunners only who are interested in this question,” 
and denounces us for imagining that we are, he is a little hard on us 
when we have been hunting the world round to get somebody who is 
not a gunner to preside at this Institution this afternoon,—somebody 
who was like the Duke of Connaught, a representative of the army at 
large. Unfortunately for us, being not only a soldier but having be¬ 
sides his soldiering duties, national duties to fulfil, he was not able to 
attend. I am only very sorry that we have not been able to get any¬ 
one who would more effectually than I represent the army at large. 
I intend to take the discussion backwards because it so happens 
that we opened out into that larger field which Colonel Hale rightly 
suggested as the important one towards the end of the discussion. 
Lord Charles Beresford says that we ought to look upon the Navy “ at 
least as sea gunners I scarcely know of a case when we have had 
to get any new invention when we have not had to look at the Admir¬ 
alty to introduce it for us; that was the case with the Maxim and 
many other things. I do not say it with any disparagement of Sir 
Edwin Markham’s department because it is fortunate for him that 
you sailors stand in front of him to blow away those financial difficul¬ 
ties which always obstruct the department or the Government, and 
I do not believe Sir Edwin Markham’s own department has a better 
friend than the sailors who perform that function for him. You can¬ 
not fire away too hard for us. 
1 They were in fact mountain guns of a quick firing pattern supplied by Messrs. Vickers & Com¬ 
pany. I have seen a similar gun and they proved so successful at the Atbara that more batteries 
of the same pattern have been ordered. Under favourable conditions the single gun has fired 
seven rounds a minute. Practically, however, we now mean by a “ quick-firer ” field-gun a 
gun that does not recoil, and in that sense these were not “ quick-firers.” 
2 I have had reason since the meeting to doubt whether any other than the 6" ship-gun quick. 
Byers were used. 
