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COMPETITIVE PRACTICE IN THE GARRISON ARTILLERY. 
ing the various guns are capable of. Vessels wishing to enter the 
Medway for instance must, on account of the lie of the channel, be 
almost end on to the guns in the forts at the entrance of the river from 
the moment they come within range until they are close up to the 
batteries, so that a C.O., unless he wishes his layers to remain idle for 
the greater part of their time, must necessarily order them to lay on 
vessels either approaching straight on or going directly away from the 
battery. Of course I do not mean to say that this is always the case, 
for the guns in the centre of the fronts of some of the Thames forts 
from their position must be fought by Running Past points and therefore 
would always have a vessel broadside on to aim at. 
3.—The D.R.F. is almost invariably used for competitive practice 
and other methods sacrificed to it. 
This is not the case in the Thames District, where the companies go 
through an annual course of 42 days, as laid down in Sec. VIII. R.A.S.O. 
and are instructed in the use of the P.F., which in 1895 was used by 
all the companies, in preference to the D.R.F., for their “ Competitive ” 
and probably would have been used again in 1896 if the conditions of 
the competition for the Centenary Cup had admitted of it. 
The contention that under the present system one day’s competitive 
firing mahes or mars a company is a just one, but how to remedy it is 
quite another matter, unless a hard and fast rule be made that at their 
annual practice all the companies forming any particular group must 
fire the same number of rounds and from the same nature of guns. 
But, even if this were done, it would be impossible to exclude the 
element of luck altogether, for one company might have a still day with 
a good light and a clear range while another had to fire on a dull, 
gusty day with a foul range. 
As regards the selection of competing gun detachments and gun¬ 
layers, the present method certainly does introduce a certain element 
of luck, but the example given by Major Saltmarshe of the effect of 
this is surely a very uncommon one. The inclusion of five men classed 
as only u fairly reliable” and three as “uncertain” amongst the paid 
layers of a company seems to be open to comment, as it can hardly be 
contemplated that a man should receive extra pay as a specialist who 
did not reach a higher standard of excellence in his own particular line 
than “ uncertain ” ! With reference to the number of rounds fired by 
a gun-layer previous to the C( Competitive” I must say that I have never 
known it to be so few as only two or three. Generally a large number 
of rounds of 1" and M.H. ammunition are placed at the disposal of the 
company C.O. to be fired from the 6" B.L. and from Q.F. guns and 
this affords him an excellent opportunity of testing his gun-layers. 
While on the subject of gun-layers, I would like to remark that in 
my humble opinion it would be a great advantage to the service if the 
qualifications required of candidates for this appointment were some¬ 
what relaxed. 
At present, in addition to passing the prescribed tests as laid down 
