DISCUSSION ON ARTILLERY. 
battery. Lieut.-Colonel Elmslie, will you kindly open the discussion 
(applause). 
Lieut.-Colonel Elmslie :—Sir Henry Brackenbury and gentlemen, 
the questions that have been put with reference to the Howitzer 
battery are very clear, and the best thing I can do is to describe it as 
shortly as possible. 
As regards the Howitzer batteries at present in the service there are 
three of them organized as Field Batteries; that is to say, the guns are 
horsed with six horses each; they have six guns each; and the 
personnel is in every respect the same as that of a Field Battery. As to 
the weight behind the team that we had in Egypt it was 45-cwt; 
that included two rounds of case shot in addition to what the limber 
itself carries ; there were two rounds of case shot over and above the 
proper equipment of the gun, and those were strapped on the top 
of the limber. In England they are drawn in the ordinary way by 
teams of horses; in Egypt they were drawn by teams of mules. I 
may say that was entirely a scratch arrangement. When we got out 
there we had a very short time in Cairo ; we received our mules and 
a great deal of harness and had to do the best we could. The har¬ 
ness did not suit the mules,—the traces were too long; I think they 
were horse traces. 
The Chairman :—Six mules per gnn ? 
Lieut-Colonel Elmslie :—Eight mules per gun, Sir. I do not think 
it is fair to say too much about the harness because it was more or less 
improvised, but it could be greatly improved no doubt. One feature 
of the harness was that every mule carried a pack-saddle,—-that was 
a very important point indeed. The pack-saddle in conjunction with 
the ammunition arrangements enabled you, when the gun was in posi¬ 
tion to unhook your mule and to send him to the ammunition depot, 
and he came up carrying on his back shells or cartridges as the case 
might be. 
Perhaps it might be convenient to mention here exactly what the 
arrangements were. They were most carefully thought out by the 
authorities at home; I only regret that we did not have more oppor¬ 
tunity of testing them to the full, but so far as the test went they were 
most satisfactory,—I could not wish for anything better. The 5-inch 
Howitzer fires a 50-lb. shell, which is too large to handle with 
comfort in the bare hands, and requires something to carry it 
by, either the little strap that is used at drill or some other 
arrangement. We were supplied with little canvas buckets which 
just fitted the shell and had a rope handle at the top. There 
was no difficulty in getting the shell into one of these buckets 
which was then lifted up and hooked upon the pack-saddle. The 
people at the ammunition depot fitted the shells in the buckets 
which were then stood on the ground, and when a mule came up he 
stood between two rows of shells, a couple of men hooked them on his 
back, and he was away in a moment. Each mule could carry four 
shells or two boxes of cartridges. In order *to see what distance 
we could go from our base, we worked out very carefully the time 
