ARTILLERY AMMUNITION SUPPLY. 
205 
That it “ appears possible that for any given object fewer rounds will 
be required to produce decisive results than before/ 5 Yet in his very 
next sentence he goes on to say, a but the batteries will not permit 
themselves to remain idle, and therefore more rounds will certainly be 
used in the day’s work than with slow firing equipments/ 5 Now the 
present writer must confess that he is unable to follow this argument. 
Though the necessary decisive results have been obtained with, if 
anything, a smaller number of rounds than has been the case hitherto, 
yet, as we see later on, Lieut.-Colonel Elmslie conjectures that the 
total expenditure will be doubled. How is so large a difference to 
be accounted for ? For more than a half of the total expenditure of 
ammunition is surely an extravagant amount to allow for other than 
decisive issues. Possibly however, to use a German expression, the 
detachments have been “ shooting in courage/ 5 Lieut.-Colonel Elmslie 
then proceeds to take the infantry as a basis, and decides that the 
artillery ammunition supply must be doubled. In making this demand 
he appears to attribute the increased infantry supply entirely to the 
adoption of the magazine. While confessing to ignorance on matters 
concerning the sister arm, the present writer would venture to suggest 
that, taking into consideration the decreased weight of the magazine 
bullet, this increase may be partly due to the ability of the personnel 
and wagons to carry more ammunition rather than to the necessity of 
their doing so. 
To proceed however, Lieut.-Colonel Elmslie proposes to carry about 
3,500 rounds per battery, and distributes them as follows:— 
Battery ... ... 1,000 rounds. 
Ammunition column 1,000 « 
// park ... 1,500 n 
In other words, he adds wagons to his battery, doubles the size of 
the ammunition column, and more than trebles that of the ammunition 
park. 
With the first portion of this programme no fault can be found. If 
extra ammunition must be carried, which however the present writer 
does not admit, by all means let it be placed where it is in the best 
position to meet any sudden or excessive demand made on the battery. 
But the doubling of the ammunition column is quite another question. 
Lieut.-Colonel Elmslie proposes to effect this by the formation of “ light 
and mobile units, well officered, and capable of moving at good speed 
across country. 55 
Has Lieut.-Colonel Elmslie considered how much ammunition 
light and mobile vehicles will carry across country with safety ? It is 
to be hoped that a goodly number of qualified wheelers will accompany 
these columns. But, even granted that such a vehicle were procurable, 
let us for a moment pause and consider the difficulties in the way of 
the unfortunate column commander. Even should the “ stringent 
regulations 55 clear a way for him, and in war time this would be very 
doubtful, he finds himself behind large bodies of troops, which, were 
