COAST ARTILLERY IN ACTION. 165 
might often be able to fire at another target because one was obscured by smoke. 
I agree with what Colonel Jocelyn said, but I do not think that his illustration 
was quite a happy one. 
Then with regard to the targets that we fire at, that target on the diagram, I 
take it, is the section of a ship that is supposed to be approaching you ? 
Lizvut.-Cotone. J. R. J. Jocenyn—Yes. 
Lirut.-Cotonen R. W. Rarnsrorp-Hannay—And as you fired at it I think 
you said that the range did not vary very much? 
Lizvut.-CoLonge. J. R. J. Jocetyn—Yes. 
Lirut.-Cotonen R. W. Rainsrorp-Hannay—But the ship if moving end- 
on at a constant range must have been going sideways across the battery ? 
Lrnut.-CotongEL J. R. J. Jocetyn—No, I did not say that we fired at the ship ; 
we fired at the record target shewn on the diagram, and it moved at a slow rate. 
I merely used this for the sake of comparison,to emphasize that, if we could 
land two shots out of four in that small record target, we might possibly expect 
to do the same thing, on active service, when firing at a real objective. 
Lirut.-Cotonen R. W. Ratnsrorp-Hannay—I am glad that you have entered 
upon the subject of targets, particularly an advancing and receding target, because 
it is a thing that we very much want. Nobody has yet produced an advancing or 
receding target, and, if anybody would do that, I think it would give an immense 
lift to Garrison Artillery and to their practice. With the record targets that we 
have hitherto fired at, the better the practice the more difficult it is to make a 
target that will record it; but, at the same time it must not be considered that 
the record targets are a failure, because they have taught us to shoot. There is 
no doubt that the artillery did not know how well they could shoot, or take such 
an interest in their shooting until the record targets were made. Therefore, how- 
ever much they may be smashed up, it does not follow that they are to be done 
away with, and that we are to go back to the old system of the Hong Kong. 
About telephones and telegraphs, personally I hate the telephone. It is most 
distracting to hear a man talking through the telephone—calling up his fellow, 
and all that sort of thing. I defy anybody to keep his head witha telephone going 
very near him, and, if we could by any possibility substitute the telesraph for the 
telephone, I think it would be an advantage. Of course it would require a more 
highly instructed individual, which it is harder to get; but that should be our aim. 
And for that reason I think that the electric order-dial is a good invention, Cer- 
tainly at Picklecombe, where you have a fort with two tiers, and where the battery 
commander has no chance of seeing what his gun group commander is doing, [ 
think the electric order-dial has worked very well. 
As to corrections, my friend on my right (Major Hansard) is too modest to 
speak about what he has done himself, but I think he is now in the way to bring 
forward corrections by slide rules which will work the corrections automatically. 
I do not say that his is the best thing that can be made, but I think that some- 
thing in that direction will be a great help to us in the future. 
Colonel Jocelyn has also entered into the question of smartness of the Garrison 
Artillery. Now a garrison company has to take charge of an armament that is 
equivalent to that of about three ironclads ; about 100 men have to do what 1500 
sailors and marines have to do on board ship—their work is hard work and rouch. 
I only wish we could have the same bright gun floors and polish that you see On 
board ship ; but when you think that one man has to do the work of somethine 
like fifteen others on board ship, you can scarcely expect him to do it with the 
same degree of finish. And with regard to the garrison gunner himself, I think 
that everybody who comes from a Field Battery to Garrison Artillery is astonished 
at the grand physique of the garrison gunner. Heisagrand fellow. He is ready 
