A NOTE ON THE GOLD MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1892. 709 
(4.) Guns accurately laid at an assigned object of which the 
range has been determined. 
Then they would be carrying out a “ connected course of instruction 
extending throughout the year,” and every detail which a battery 
would be called upon to perform in front of an enemy would become 
“ second nature ” to it, from the Battery Commander to the least accom¬ 
plished No. 9. 
EEPLY, 
BY 
MAJOR A. M. MURRAY, R.A. 
By the favour of the Secretary of the Royal Artillery Institution I 
have been allowed to see Colonel Brough's paper before publication, 
so that any remarks which might seem useful in the nature of a reply 
could appear simultaneously with the criticism. 
I gather from Colonel Brough's paper that he thinks the programme 
laid down in Part III. of the Gold Medal Prize Essay is “ sound,” 
and can be carried out at stations where there are only one or two 
batteries, but that at larger stations where three batteries constitute 
the Lieut.-Colonel's command, and where all three may have to be 
ready for practice by the 1st of May, there would not be sufficient time 
for each battery, turn by turn, to go through the proposed course. 
Colonel Brough proposes, therefore, to curtail the course by cutting 
out the two weeks allotted to sub-division and section instruction, and 
one of the two weeks laid down as necessary for the Brigade-Division 
Commander. He would then divide the time 1 from the 15th of March 
to the 1st of May between the Battery Commanders and the Lieut.- 
Colonel, limiting the share of the latter to one week. Colonel Brough's 
suggestion is that the “ preliminary'' part of the course—viz., the 
sub-division and section drills—could be carried out before the drill 
season begins, and that (( one working week'' under the Lieut.- 
Colonel ought to be sufficient to “ freshen up'' batteries of “ ordinary 
standard.'' 
Having been invited to submit a reply I would ask leave of the 
Committee to do so as follows. The periods of time laid down in the 
Essay for sub-division, section, battery, and brigade-division drills 
were minimum periods. No lesser periods under the new conditions 
of Fire Discipline training will, it is thought, suffice ; and the writer 
is confident that every Commanding Officer responsible for the suc¬ 
cessful shooting of his battery at next year's practice will endorse this 
1 Colonel Brough, calculates upon each Battery Commander getting 12 days ; but this calculation 
seems to include Saturdays and Sundays. In five weeks there are practically only 25 woiking 
days, as Saturdays must he given up for other purposes than instruction. This would give little 
more than eight days to each battery. 
