COAST DEFENCE. 179 
earn wages raw material must be imported without great difficulty, 
and the manufactured article exported with equal ease. 
Besides the duty of fighting the heavy guns in coast forts, there 
are other ways in which the garrison gunner will find employment. 
In times of war, orders and regulations for the management of the 
traffic of shipping entering fortified ports will be framed to meet the 
requirements of the war in which we may be engaged. 
The duty of enforcing these regulations will fall upon the Garrison 
Artillery. It will be an arduous and irksome duty, and inglorious, if 
duty may ever be so qualified. It is a duty that must be provided for 
and cheerfully performed. The most important detail in the Garrison 
Artilleryman’s work in war will be to look out for and repulse torpedo- 
boat attacks. There is little or no war experience to show how far 
forts will be able to deal with this comparatively new form of raid. 
The experience gained at Wei-hai-wai is, as far as it goes, in favour of 
the fort versus torpedo boat, but it is not enough on which to base 
opinion, for until the forts commanding the entrance to the harbour of 
Wei-hai-wai were in the bands of the Japanese Army, and presumably 
also the shore search lights and mine fields, Admiral Ito would not 
venture a torpedo-boat attack. And it is interesting to note that the 
Japanese in the forts completely frustrated the torpedo-boat attack on 
the night of the 30 th January by opening fire on their own boats from 
the forts, mistaking them for Chinese. Surprise being an essential 
element in such an undertaking, the mere betrayal of the presence 
of the attacking flotilla was sufficient to send it back to the fleet. 
Discretion proved in this case the better part of valour, though no one 
can say that the crews of the Japanese torpedo boats were wanting in 
the latter virtue. It is in the direction of repelling such raids that 
the principal training of Garrison Artillery must eventually tend. 
More than ever will it be necessary for smart drill and quick laying, 
and this not only in daylight, but at night. The men, to repel a 
torpedo-boat raid, must obtain what Nelson defined as “ trained 
dexterity, acquired by the mere habit of doing things in the dark and 
under difficulties.” The laws which govern torpedo-boat attacks will 
be probably not unlike the conditions that attended successful cutting- 
out expeditions by the boats of the fleet in former wars. The details 
will be changed, but the principles will probably remain unaltered. 
Naval history relating to such expeditions will, therefore, help us to 
realize what our duties in this respect will be. 
The guarding of booms and of mine fields, where they may be found 
necessary, will also fall to the lot of the Garrison Artillery; but here 
infantry would probably assist, and be of great service. Therefore, in 
every way in which our Navy, our Merchant Fleet, and a good harbour 
may be secured the Garrison Artilleryman comes to the fore. He 
appears to me to be more than a watch-dog, and if similes are com 
venient and desirable, I would rather liken him to the goal-keeper in 
the football field, whose duties need no explanation to an Englishman. 
I would, however, be quite clear on this point—no amount of coast 
artillery will ever afford a substitute for a single man-of-war. 
