28 COAST DEFENCE AGAINST TORPEDO-BOAT ATTACK. 
really be determined that there will always be a sufficient naval force 
at any given place the matter is extremely simple. Yery few shore 
guns are then needed, and these being only to assist the Navy, the 
latter should be made to define exactly the water areas which they 
require shore guns to defend. The Navy, when in sufficient force, 
can best protect itself from torpedo-boat attack by keeping torpedo- 
destroyers, etc., at sea, booms, nets, etc. In this case it should only 
remain for Garrison Artillery to see that they have a reasonable 
quantity of suitable guns, mountings, and electric lights, all rightly 
placed to carry out the task assigned to them. Even so they 
have trouble for, unfortunately for them, this is a business entirely 
removed from their control. Others place their guns and electric 
lights, frequently mounting both of them unsuitably for artillery 
purposes. It is a consequence of this nursing of Garrison Artillery 
that the chances of successful co-operation with the Navy, in pro¬ 
portion to the money granted and expended, are often feeble. The 
nursing departments work, necessarily, on hard and fast rules, and 
have no elasticity for meeting unexpected local conditions or the 
wishes and needs of gunners. Unnecessarily elaborate magazines and 
emplacements are constructed which, once a gun is badly sited, fix it 
there permanently. 
Naval assis There are sea fortresses and coaling stations both at 
, " home and abroad as to which it would probably be 
doubtful very unsa: * :e count on the continued presence of a 
sufficient naval force locked up for local defence, what¬ 
ever may be the scheme devised for that purpose by the Navy in time of 
peace. Our Navy is essentially an active, mobile power, capable of being 
applied anywhere, and it is incredible that circumstances may not arise 
to induce an admiral to take with him what he can lay his hands on for 
the purpose of striking a blow. It is frequently argued that if the 
admiral is out in front, as it were, of the base, the coast fortress is safe 
from serious attack. This, though perfect in theory and true generally 
in fact, has exceptions, and does not apply to light swift raids if the 
fortress is within striking distance of undestroyed hostile torpedo- 
boat stations. It is not only ships of war but all shipping which 
should be safe under British guns. Garrison Artillery must often 
therefore not rely too confidently on any naval scheme, or rather must 
be prepared for its being thrown over, and must be ready to defend 
naval areas as well as those that are peculiarly their own. This 
raises a certain amount of difficulty. If there is a permanent fixed 
D _ and defined area into which shore guns are never to 
fire, it is very easy to put up the danger guard I have 
devised for gun emplacements, so that neither light Q.F. nor heavy 
armament can, even by accident, shoot into it. This is necessary 
because one piece of water is exactly like another, and the ( naval 
area 9 boundaries are entirely imaginary. But if there is the slightest 
probability of the guns having to defend a larger area, two or more 
danger guards must be placed one behind the other and must be made 
removable to permit any one of them to be used at will. None must 
be permanently fixed. 
