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MINUTES OE PROCEEDINGS OF 
5th. To punish severely any subordinate guilty of arbitrary conduct. 
6th. To return without reply, and each time with a reprimand, 
every useless question which it is the delight of timid and idle officials 
to send. 
In the ideal arsenal whose establishment and organisation I shall 
endeavour to describe, I shall assume that the arsenal is under the 
general authority of the Survey or-General of the Ordnance ; that it is 
under the direct government of a practical artillery officer of adminis¬ 
trative ability, acquainted with stores and their manufacture ; and that 
the subordinates are chosen from those branches of the service which 
can supply capable men, having a knowledge of the class of stores with 
which they are called upon to deal. 
I think few will be inclined to dispute the assertion that the manu¬ 
facture and supply of warlike stores require special training; and that 
in addition to the knowledge required of stores in their passive state, 
the officer charged with supply should have a practical knowledge of 
the use of the same. Without this, while it is possible that a depart¬ 
ment may supply stores with regularity in time of peace, it will probably 
fail in time of war or emergency, because it will not know what stores 
should take precedence in manufacture or despatch, nor what may be 
supplied in lieu of those of another kind when the stock of the stores 
required is exhausted. 
But it may be asserted that it is impossible to obtain a man 
practically acquainted with, and competent to deal with, all natures of 
stores. This is perfectly true; but an artillery officer who knows his 
profession and the requirements of the other branches of the service, 
who has passed through the manufacturing courses, will probably be 
found to best fulfil all the necessities of the case, provided he is assisted 
by men capable of dealing with the work to be done in a practical 
fashion.* 
5. The Details oe the Organisation of an Arsenal, divided under 
THREE HEADS, VIZ :- 
A. Storekeeping. 
B. Construction. 
C. Administration. 
Under the head A are embraced the various stores and magazines for 
equipment and materiel of all kinds necessary for the supply of an army 
*—the departments charged with the issue and receipt of stores, &c. 
* Upon this portion of the subject the recommendations of the two committees known respec¬ 
tively as Lord Strathnairn’s Committee on Supply and Transport, 1867, and Lord Northbrook’s 
Committee on the Conduct of Business in the Army Departments, 1870, bear very strongly. 
The opinion of the former was, as is well known, in favour of a distinct Ordnance Department 
and was as follows:—“ That the custody and management of arms and munitions of war is so 
special a duty that it could not be conveniently connected "with that of other supplies, but that it 
should be a distinct branch in close connection with the Eoyal Artillery, who are trained and 
professionally qualified for such duties.” 
lord Northbrook’s Committee, however, considered that this would destroy “ unity of administra- 
