172 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
ON 
THE RE-ARMAMENT OF GIBRALTAR. 
CAPTAIN J. B. RICHARDSON, R.A. 
Gibraltar is about to be armed with 9-inch guns. The guns, indeed, 
have been for some years lying on skidding in various parts of the 
Rock ; but until lately, when owing to the present outbreak of war, the 
attention of the public was prominently directed to the comparatively 
defenceless state of our fortresses and forts, caused by the modern 
improvements in both artillery and armour-plated vessels of war, it has 
been thought unnecessary to provide for mounting them, and just now 
our Engineers are busy preparing sites on which these guns will be 
placed. 
The choice of good sites is a matter of the utmost im- 
Stes 06 ° f portance—not only to the artillery, who will have to work 
and take care of the guns, but to the country, from an 
economical point of view. Immense expense is incurred in building 
adequate protection, and the large sums so spent will be more or less 
thrown away if the works are erected in faulty positions. Sooner or 
later, in spite of their strength on paper, they will be abandoned for 
better position's, and the labour and money expended on them be in 
vain regretted. 
Having paid considerable attention to the subject, I have 
Plan fixed on arrived at the conclusion, right or wrong, that the general 
ment faulty, plan oi re-armament, as iar as heavy guns are concerned, is 
faulty, and that the situations in which they are about to be 
placed are bad. If I am wrong, it will no doubt be easy to expose the 
fallacy of what I advance; if the sites now chosen be really- the best 
available, discussion in these papers will but confirm the judgment of 
those who fixed on these positions; while should my view of the matter 
be correct, there is yet time to curtail a useless outlay. 
At present it is chiefly intended to dot the 9-inch guns 
over the north-west portion of the Rock, in no particular 
order—few close to the level of the water’s edge, but in 
sites varying between this and the height of the Queen's Road, which 
runs along the western face of the Rock at a considerable height, some 
630 ft. j and it is this arrangement which I take exception to. 
Plan now 
adopted. 
