TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12590, 5 September 1906, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The success of th© Rexer The automatic rifle Sl Natal Automatic will famish the writer Rifle. in tho "World's Work" with another argument in his campaign for tho adoption of some sort of automatic weapon by the British army. If his advice ia followed —and ho puts the case very strongly— wo shall see before long troops armed with miniature Maxims, eaoh man's rifle pouring forth a hail of bullets at the more pressing of the trigger, and if the fire discipline of a regiment ie good tho effect on attacking troops will bo something terrible. In a recent trial of tho automatic rifle by a •well-known ehofc, forty shots weTO placed at 200 yards, in a circle of fifteen inches diameter, in a minute, and with tho large auxiliary magazine, fifteen hits were recorded in nine seconds. "These results give some idea of what a thousand trained marksmen would be ablo to accomplish in one minute's time, namely, they would be capablo of producing from 30.000 to 40,000 effective hits. On. this basis four automatic rifles would bo more than equal to the machine gun. The cost of a machine gun, with carriage and limber, is more than £200, whereas that of an automatic rifle is £4 to £5." An expert shot who fires twenty-eix rounds in a minute with a magazine rifle has to move tho bolt to and fro twenty-six times, and it ia very difficult to manipulate the bolt I of a service- rifle without altering the alignment of the barrel with the tar- ' get. With an automatic rifle-the attenI tion of the firer is concentrated on hie ' aim, and it is possible to keep the target constantly covered. Another great i advantage of the new weapon ie the lessening of fatigue. It has no recoil. It ! necessitates fenver movements on the 1 part of the shoulder, since it can bo kept at the shoulder till tho magazine ia exhausted, and there is not, -with it, the great physical strain which even, a short spell of rapid firing with the serI vioo riflo produces. As many as 250 rounds have been fired from one automatic rifle in eight minutes without the firer experiencing any discomfort, ■whilo a couple of mitautes of rapid firing with the service weapon produces exhaustion. Tho opposition to the weapon is strong, but it is contended that just the same opposition was shown to tho machine gun, which is now in use all over tho world. A particularly interesting Sarawak, function was held in London on July 6th, the first re-union of tha men whoun Sir Charles : Brooke, tho Rajah of Sarawak, has gathered rctmd him in his adminlstration. A winter in the "Standard," who , has lived in this out-of-the-way part of the world, seizes the opportunity to give his countrymen some imfcrmation i (whioh ho believes to be much neede<i) of the work done there by the Brookes and their jissista.nte. He points out that tho Brookee now rank as "High»3ssos," net only in their own country, j but in tho Court#of King Edward ; they ; have tho honours and precedence of Feudatory Princes of tho Empire. Yet this rank ha'ndly rcpresente Sir Charles Brooke's position. Sarawak's only connection with--the Empire is a compact [ by which it is guaranteed from foreign aggression, en condition that it permits tho Imperial Government to guido its relations with the other States of Borneo. Otherwise Sarawak ie an independent State. Nominally it is under tho suzerainty of the Sultan of Brunei, but his suzerainty is about as effective as that of the Sultan of Turkey over Egypt. Tire Rajah of Sarawak ie master of hjs land, and while Brunei remains d\e of the "cruel habitations" of the earth, Sarawak is wcll-governrd and contented. Sir Charles Brooke is described as probably tho most absolute monarch in. the world. Foreign affairs trouble the country but little, and tho inhabitants cheerfully own the sway of their benevolent despot. The Rajah ia not greatly hampered by a code of lawe. He has a council of liis chief α-hito officers and tho Malay headmen, wjuie thf "Council of the Country"- is occasionally summoned and consulted. The troops are native, the Government

relying mainly upon the Dyak militia, who turn out at the call of danger in their own war-boats, and with their own arms and equipment. Tho intercourse between the English officers and tho nativesjia much more intimate than is usual hi a British colony, and 3-ou will not hear an officer of the Sarawak service describe the native population as "niggers." Sarawak is a land of many races, and to come extent it may be said that the Government rests upon an equilibrium of forces established between them. And in the interior one finds the wild foreet folk, almost white in colour, and scarcely out of their arboreal stage of existence, wliile there are persistent etories of a tailed race in the forests. The commercial future of Sarawak is bright, for there are coal «nd gold in .addition to tropical products, but material prosperity is not tho root idea of tho Rajah's administration. "Ho has continued tho good work of his undo by laying slowly, but surely, tho foundation of respect for law, realisation of the advantages of internal pence, and of industry. He does not desire the presence of the European exploiter and oonoeesion--hunter. In this work he has been, assisted by a band of men as devoted as any who ever shouldered the 'white man's burden,' and it is fittiaig that they, as well as lie, should receive their meed of recognition from their fellowBritons. -, No title for an articlo Tho is more nlluring to Joys of tho householder than Camping ''Why Pay Rent or Hotel Bills?" so it would not l>e surprising if tho circulation of tho July number of "C. B. Fry's Magazine" was abnormally large. Mr R. J. Mecredy's fwlution of tho rent problem is to live in tents—not merely cs a change, in holidays, but as a habit. Tiro bachelor ho ndvii-es to rent a small plot of ground (rent cannot be entirely abolished) and live in a 9 x 10 tent, with a small wooden room attached to serve as a kitchen and sitting room. As to tho married man—and particularly tho struggling variety—''instead of merely existing in a wretched, overcrowded, stuffy house, he and 'his family would have ample elbow room, unlimited pure fresh air, and enjoy such robust health, that any trifling hardship that such a life might entail would make no impression on the sum of their happiness and contentment." The usual cry of colds and pneumonia ie, ho says, eimply a bogey. He has seen, men sleep on the damp ground—sometimes in bog land bo soft that the pegs had to be kept down with etones —with notliing under thean but a water-proof sheet as thin as writing paper, and come through the night will.iou'ti Jiarm. As for rheumatism, camping, ho believes, acts as a preventive; at least it has done so in his case. In a fixed camp inhabited uy Mr Mecredy and 3iis wife the tent door is kept open in all weathers. As November last apnro-aolied he confesses that ho felt a little nervous about his wife, who wan subject to oolds t and) he wrote to a friend with a -long experience of asking whether it wae Ayiße to give free access to the damp blustering winds. "There is no such thing «b catching cold" was the reply. "People catch, h-eat." Tin's proved to be correct, in this particular case at any rate. It' was particularly stormy, and howling gaks roared in through tfoo open doorway, but for the first time for as long as Mr Mecrqdy could remember, his wife passed through tho -winter without catching a severe cold and he found that Qio could wear his cummer clothes all the winter without discomfort. Further, sleep under canvas was so sound ,and refreshing 'tSiat his day in camp was at least an hour and a half longer than before. The general public, he declares, even those sensible people who' sleep with open windows, have no .ideawhat it means to breathe pure frash air all night and every night.