344, COMMENDED Essay, 1896. 
best where to find the Column and his services may again be needed 
when another call on the reservoir has to be made. 
The principle is precisely the same where a question of supplying 
small-arm ammunition is concerned. When the demand is received, 
the officer in command of the Ammunition Column should send for- 
ward one §.A.A. cart per battalion (or 4 per brigade) to the brigade 
ammunition reserve of each brigade which is in need. Again, the 
services of an officer to lead them should, whenever possible, be 
utilised. 
The horses belonging to the Column should be unhooked and put 
into the emptied carts as in the previous case, and these should, as be- 
fore, be led back by the officer of the Column and refilled from the 
ammunition and store wagon. It will not be necessary to exchange 
arms or kits in this instance, because the S.A.A. carts should be un- 
encumbered by such things. 
The guide or messenger from the Column should remain with the 
brigade ammunition reserve during the action as in the case of the 
artillery. j 
Habits and ideas acquired in peace time are not readily shuffled off 
on active service, and difficulties might be made as to requisitions or 
vouchers, for which men are taught to entertain a pedantic veneration 
and respect in barracks. But no such things are necessary in the 
presence of the enemy, the Ammunition Column need ask for no 
formal requisition, a simple receipt for the number of full wagons 
or carts handed over will be prepared and accepted by the officer com- 
manding it, these, when duly signed by the officer who receives the 
ammunition, will be all that is required. 
It is not part of the duty of an officer commanding an Ammunition 
Column to keep an account of all the rounds which may be expended, 
that duty, should it be imposed upon him, falls to the share of him who 
leads the guns or rifles firmg on the enemy, and his casualty returns 
can furnish the information. 
The commander of an Ammunition Column should also practise his 
men in the duties which they will have to doin the field. They should 
thoroughly understand the nature of the various kinds of ammunition 
carried, and should be taught to pack and unpack it rapidly, and to 
shift ib from one wagon to another. A regular system, akin to drill, 
with this end in view, should be established and every opportunity 
taken to exercise the men at it. 
On the other hand it devolves on the senior captain in the case of a 
wagon line of a brigade-division, or of the officer in charge of the brigade 
reserve in that of infantry, to endeavour to open up communication from 
his side by means of signallers with the Ammunition Column. 
He should take the earliest opportunity to replace empty wagons or 
8.A.A. carts with full ones from the Column and the officer commanding 
the Column ought to be kept informed of the number of empty wagons 
or 8.A.A. carts there waiting till full ones can take their place. In 
the case of infantry it is of course the duty of the brigade staff to ensure 
that the empty battalion transport is duly replaced from the brigade 
reserve, but to save time battalion transport should, in an emergency, 
