94 INCIDENTS OF BUSH WARFARE. 
Let me now cast a rapid survey on what such a corps could have done had we 
possessed such in our past wars. 
Ist. They would have been invaluable in Bulgaria and at Balaklava during 
the Crimean War. 
2nd. They could have rendered great assistance during the Persian War at 
the place of disembarkation ; also in China. 
3rd. In New Zealand our operations would have been much facilitated. 
4th At the Cape we should have found them of great assistance; ditto in 
Abyssinia when once on the plateau. 
5th. In the Egyptian War of 1882 we should have had the railway opened 
up much more quickly and have had several piers rapidly put 
together at Ismailia. 
Suppose that by any chance we had to disembark a force in Asia Minor, would not 
such a corps be of the greatest value? We have but to refer to Knight’s “ Where . 
Three Empires Meet,” to see what use can be made of a corps of pioneers com- 
manded by such a man as Mr. Spedding. But the best proof of the want of such 
a corps can be obtained by reading the Blue Books containing the House of 
Commons’ reports regarding the Crimea, Abyssinia, New Zealand and Egyptian 
Wars. 
Lastly they would serve as trainers of our regular infantry whenever it became 
necessary to employ them for road making and military works during field 
operations. 
The above is necessarily only a brief sketch showing the utility of a pioneer 
corps.” : 
The third point was one that was spoken about the other day by Major 
Simpson of the Royal Artillery.! It was that their Mountain Artillery is not at 
the present moment provided with a suitable weapon; something more was re- 
quired, to be added to their 7-pr. mountain gun and that was a howitzer. He 
believed some experiments had already been made with regard to this; and in the 
case of the Gate Pah, he was firmly convinced that had the artillery possessed 
weapons suitable for high angle fire we would very soon have taken the place. 
Major Simpson had brought it especially to notice and had shown that though the 
present gun was a fine one, for straight shooting, it was not adapted to driving an 
enemy out of earth-works. He daresay that attention had been drawn to it and a 
remedy would be provided. 
CoLoneL O’Brien, R.E., said he should like to ask the lecturer whether in the 
course of his researches, in the instructions for troops in bush fighting, he had 
come across any advice as to the way a column should work in cutting through 
the bush and clearing the way for the troops. Of course in work of that kind it 
was not perfectly straight cutting, and when they came across a path they naturally 
followed it and the result was a winding zig-zag path. 
Masor Conner in reply said he should be delighted to send down the names 
of any suitable books on his subject. The official account was always trustworthy, 
though perhaps not always interesting, still it was always a basis to go upon, and 
one could read other works afterwards. He could bear out every word General 
Wood had said about the fighting on the Kyber road because he believed that was 
what he was referring to. Herelated an incident which showed that the Afridis 
did not always come off scot free from their night attacks. 
We have always been indebted to friendly natives in all our wars, and if it had 
not been for the friendlies we should have had great difficulties to contend with. 
Seen 
1R.,A.I, ‘ Proceedings,” No, VI., Vol, XXII,, 2nd June, 1895. 
