66 
SOME EXPERIENCES IN EGYPT. 
Major Elmslie. I think that General Maurice, Colonel Slade, and others who 
like myself have been in Egypt and know what that campaigning life is, must 
say that we could not have had a more graphic description of that life put 
before us (applause). When 1 compare what Major Elmslie and those who 
went out with him went through, with what we went through in 1885,1 think 
they were in some ways singularly fortunate, for we had no railway to convey 
us over that stretch of desert and we had not steamers to take us up those 
upper reaches, but the men had to toil in rags, some without boots to their feet, 
blistered with the sun, scarred by the hard toil; and their cheerfulness, their 
splendid courage under all those difficulties—well, none of us who were with them 
can ever forget it. Under such great difficulties as there were for those who 
were with Major Hunter-Blair and Major Young in those marches of which they 
have told us, when great distances were covered in that burning desert in so 
short a time—I have no doubt that those men showed the same constancy 
and the same fortitude that, our comrades did in that campaign in 1885. That, 
thank God! is the characteristic of the British soldier wherever he goes. Then 
I think that these Egyptian campaigns have also to many of us been a great 
delight because they have brought together the soldiers and the sailors, (loud 
applause) and the experience of all of us who have served in such mixed 
expeditions is that wherever we have to work together we are the best of 
friends, the truest comrades, and that when the campaign is over the Sailor 
has a respect for the Soldier and the Soldier has a respect and love for the Sailor. 
I do not think that this is the time to enter into the technical Artillery ques¬ 
tions in connection with this campaign, and I should be very glad indeed if 1 could 
have an opportunity of coming here again on another occasion to hear these 
questions thoroughly well discussed, for there is a great deal that I want to know ; 
but there is one feature in connection with them on which Major Elmslie touched 
and which is to me, and I think to all of you here, of infinite interest, and that 
is that this was the first occasion on which high explosive shells have ever been 
used by troops in the field, and that our high explosive shells were so great 
a success as they were. That there was not one premature explosion, that the 
accuracy in the shooting was so good and the destruction done so great 
as it was, must be to all of us a matter of great satisfaction, because the 
day is close at hand when these high explosive shells will be introduced 
largely into our service, not so much for field guns as for fortress guns ; and it 
is a great satisfaction to me to be able to say that with the large number of 
Lyddite shells that we have now fired (and we have put them to the most tremen¬ 
dous tests, we have fired them with pressures in the guns that the shells were not 
constructed to resist, and the shells have actually set up under those pressures), 
there has not been a single premature explosion. That is a matter of great satis¬ 
faction to me, as it is that the fuzes used for these shells have proved perfectly 
safe and that Major Elmslie had not an-accident of any sort although this was the 
first time those shells were ever used in the field. The only other thing I have 
to say to you is of a personal nature. Major Elmslie had received a most excel¬ 
lent, a most pleasant and most interesting appointment; but, there was a chance 
of his battery going on service, and he resigned that appointment that he might 
take that chance. That is the true spirit of the soldier, and that is the spirit 
which I trust and believe that every officer in the Boyal Begiment of Artillery 
possesses; and there is not one of us who does not say that Major Elmslie was 
right and who does not feel what a true soldier he was to take that course (loud 
applause). I ask you now to join me in giving a most hearty vote of thanks to 
Major Elmslie for his charming, interesting and instructive lecture (loud and 
continued applause). 
Major Elmslie : Thank you. 
