226 
MINUTES OE PROCEEDINGS OE 
a naval power. It is also a good position from which to despatch 
warlike stores to India, the Cape, or the Mediterranean; but it does 
not possess the same advantages relatively to Ireland or Canada. As 
regards the supply of war materiel to the army serving in Great Britain, 
Woolwich is mistress of no very extraordinary facilities. Water com¬ 
munication certainly enables her to supply all the places on the coast 
or on navigable rivers with tolerable ease; but she is not situated on one 
of the great main lines of railway, and has no such facilities for supply¬ 
ing the troops in the interior of the kingdom. 
Centralisation. 
The manufacture of war materiel may have to be carried on under 
varying circumstances—such as peace, war, and civil strife; and the 
first of these being our normal condition, it should be our constant 
endeavour to prevent ourselves being caught unawares by the sudden 
advent of either of the two latter. It would probably be impossible to 
select a spot which would be equally advantageously situated for all 
three conditions; but by a judicious system of decentralisation we may 
succeed in establishing our manufactures of war materiel in different 
parts of the country, so that, whatever contingency may happen, at least 
one if not two of them may be available for all our requirements. 
There can be no doubt but that the present system of centralisation at 
Woolwich meets our requirements in time of peace, and it possesses, in 
fact, certain advantages of economy as regards supervision, and in the 
constant personal intercommunication of the heads of departments. 
It is in war time, however, that the sudden strain upon our resources 
takes place; and therefore during peace all our endeavours should be 
directed with a view to avoid any hitch during that critical period of the 
administration of an army which is comprised in the transition from a 
peace to a war footing. In like manner, as the army has to be increased 
in numbers at the moment of mobilisation, so also must the manufac¬ 
tures of war materiel be expanded to a degree enabling them to keep 
pace with the largely increased requirements of the army. We shall do 
well to arrange the machinery for effecting this critical transition from 
peace to -war in time of the former, unless indeed we should prefer to 
find ourselves in the list of those whom General Trochu designates as 
“ les gouvernements surpris en flagrant delit de preparation.” Accord¬ 
ing to General Hardegg (“ Science de TEtat-Major,”) “ the principal 
factors for calculating the time necessary for the completion of the war 
materiel in the event of mobilisation are :— 
“ (a) The degree of extension and excellence of the military manu¬ 
factories and workshops, as well as of the workmen belonging 
to the state. 
“ ( b ) The well-founded prospect of a great or a small amount of com¬ 
petition for the supply of the stores required.” 
As regards the first-mentioned points, Woolwich certainly stands 
unrivalled; as to the last, in no other country could the efforts of private 
firms be calculated to produce greater results than in England. It 
