106 
MINUTES OF PKOCEEDINGS OF 
If, then, it may be conceded that the time is fast approaching when 
the soldier who aims at distinction must understand and appreciate 
every part of the great machine by which an army is worked, I may 
hope to attract to the subject of this essay the attention of those who 
would pass it by as not concerning the active duties of their profession, 
and as a matter that might well be left to the few who have made this 
branch of the artillery service the business of their lives. It requires, 
however, but little consideration to show how deeply and intimately is 
connected the duty of supply with those military operations which form 
the chief study of soldiers. Few of us indeed may be called upon 
actually to organise an arsenal, but still every artillery officer should 
consider the principles which should govern the working*, while our 
brother officers of other branches of the service will not find it vain 
and unprofitable labour to look into a matter which may be of deep 
importance to a general and his staff, whether in the defence of this 
country or in foreign expeditions or wars. 
The national scheme of military organisation which has been so 
lately placed before the public, recognises completely that decentralisa¬ 
tion in respect to warlike stores, which must accompany an attempt to 
form a force of the higher tactical units, each complete in itself.* 
It has long been a subject of discussion as to whether we ought not 
to have a central arsenal, and by this means avoid the accumulation 
in one spot of our military manufactories. Under the new condition of 
things, however, all our forces will be supplied from local depots, and 
it is not unreasonable to hope, that at no very distant time we may 
possess a central arsenal of Construction sufficient to supply, with the 
assistance of the existent private manufactories, all the wants of an 
army in the field. Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that, under 
the new system of army organisation, the General and Staff Officers of 
those portions of the country which may eventually correspond to army 
corps, must make themselves so well acquainted with their respective 
districts and their resources, that in the event of national danger or 
emergency, they would be able to make arrangements for the construction 
and manufacture of such warlike stores as would be demanded by an 
army in the field. However impossible it may be for them to attain 
that detailed knowledge of construction and supply which long expe* 
rience alone can give, it will still be incumbent upon the responsible 
administrating officers to understand and apply the governing principles. 
In the colonies, and in India, and in the variety of circumstances of 
country and climate under which British officers may be called upon 
to serve, it is not difficult to see how useful a knowledge of organisation 
may be, whether connected with the supply of munitions de guerre or 
munitions de louche —the two great kinds of food upon which the life of 
* “ According to these arrangements, the troops of the reserve would be equipped for either of 
the foregoing objects in respect to arms, accoutrements, clothing, or expense ammunition from the 
depot centres; the regular and reserve forces both obtaining camp equipage, field stores, and 
reserve ammunition from the district issuing store.”—Hep or t on the Organisation of the various 
land Military Forces of the Country, by a Committee assembled by order of the Secretary of State 
for War; 
