417 
COIPETITIYE PRACTICE IN THE GARRISON 
ARTILLERY 
AND ITS EFFECT ON THE TRAINING OF 
OFFICERS AND MEN. 
b fO. 
BY 
MAJOR 0, N. SIMPSON, R.A. 
JL REPLY, 
The conclusions arrived at by tbe author of the article on the above 
subject in tbe December number of tbe ft.A.I. “ Proceedings ” are in 
some cases so diametrically opposed to my own that I venture to set 
down tbe results of my own experience, feeling, as I do, that I shall 
represent tbe views of a good many other officers in the Garrison 
Artillery. 
Major Saltmarsbe must, I think, have based his opinions, on the 
effects he observed in one particular district, but that the state of 
-things he describes is not universal I shall endeavour to show. I take 
the alleged disadvantages seriatim :—■ 
1. —The fact that a record target can only be towed at a rate of 
seven or eight knots an hour induces commanding officers to 
train their layers at slow moving objects only . 
I have certainly not found this to be the case, for, except when dril¬ 
ling recruits, I have almost invariably noticed that the fastest targets 
available, such as mail steamers, torpedo-boats and destroyers, were 
selected, with the idea that men who had been trained at drill to lay 
on such rapidly moving objects would find it comparatively easy work 
to lay on the slow moving record target. 
2. —Men are generally trained at drill to lay on a vessel broad¬ 
side on. 
This again has not been my experience. Of course a great deal 
must necessarily depend on the position of the particular fort in use, 
as regards the general course of the shipping and the amount of train- 
8. yoii, XXIY. 
