264 
BATTERY MESSING. 
Here and there an attempt was made at reformation; I can remem¬ 
ber several such. In the R.H.A. Depot at Woolwich, for example, for 
years there had been better arrangements, but, generally speaking, 
the feeling of officers and men was against any change, and the system 
remained as I have described till 1888. 
In that year was published the now celebrated letter from Colonel 
Burnett, written from Mullingar, from which can be dated the com¬ 
mencement, at last, of a successful reform all over the army. With 
its publication orders were issued to Commanding Officers at once to 
overhaul their messing arrangements. 
Experiments have been carried out now in many batteries from that 
time to this, and every detail in connection with the matter has been, 
somewhere or other, thoroughly gone into. 
As at present there exists the greatest diversity with regard to 
amount of stoppage, hours of meals, unit of messing, and, in fact, on 
every single point, it may therefore be considered a good time to collect 
the information gained with a view to once more having a uniform 
system, this time based on better principles. I venture, therefore, to 
put forward the following propositions :— 
Stoppage .—Although Colonel Burnett has proved conclusively that a 
stoppage of 3d. for food may be made sufficient, at any rate at Mullin¬ 
gar, I believe, in the R.A., it should not be less than 4d. or 4Jd.; things 
are generally dearer at other places; the battery is a smaller unit; it 
has not the same Staff Quarter-Master, paid cook, &c. ; the gunner's 
pay, too, is a little higher, and the men can afford the difference. All 
regiments are not, like Colonel Burnett's, raised from the thrifty, 
hard-headed race which inhabits the north-east of Ireland, and I know 
that he required an amount of supervision which, do what we liked, 
would never be given in most batteries. I feel sure the infantry 
generally would do well, too, to raise their stoppage above 3d., and this 
though I am aware of the success at Aldershot, in recent years, of 
similar arrangements. 
Beer .—Beer should not be mixed up with the messing accounts at all. 
Many officers say they like the old English custom of the men having 
their beer at dinner; there is no need to change it, if thought desir¬ 
able, provided the payment is put on a sound footing, and the only 
sound one possible is, that those who drink beer should pay for it extra. 
I might add, however, that this system did not exist in either 
infantry or cavalry, and that, as a matter of fact, the gunner never did 
drink his beer at dinner, but always just before; the worst possible 
time the doctors would say. 
Hours .—The hours for breakfast and tea should be as regular as that 
for dinner always has been. I should like to have the trumpet sounded 
for every meal. 
I hear sometimes that the men have no time to sit down to a proper 
breakfast, but it is really organisation that is wanted, not time; a very 
few minutes suffices; breakfast should be just after morning stables. 
I have often been told, in the same way, that the men don't care to 
stay in for their tea, but it is not true ; they are not like Macfarlane's 
geese, who liked their play better than their meat; give the new 
