DEFENCE NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 858, 2 July 1910, Page 9

DEFENCE NOTES.

'Br Bchelok.l A Special Army Order was is9lied oil May 3 last containing the following message from King George to tho Aimy:— Marlborough House,

May 9, 1910. My. beloved father was alwavs closely associated with the Army bv tics of strong personal attachment, aud from the first day that lie entered the service he identified himself with everything conducive to its welfare. M On my accession to the throne I take •tins the earliest opportunity of expressin? to all ranks my gratitude for their . ?', devotod services to. ham. . I. i*'^ l -1 have always been, interested m the Army, recent years have afforded me opportunities of becoming more intimately acquainted with our Forces both at Home and in India, as \\;ell asinoilier parts of -the Empire. I shall watch over your interests and emcieney with continuous and keen solicitude, and shall rely upon that spirit of loyalty and devotion which has in all times animated ami been the proud tradition of the British Army.. GEORGE R.l,'.

The English Army Estimates for the year 1910-11 are criticised by Lient.-Col. le Juge, ill tho "Militar Wochenblatt," tho unofficial organ of the Prussian War Office. At the conclusion of the article the writer says: 1

.."It is hardly the business of foreigners to criticise exhaustively the remarks of. the British War Minister and the . applause, pregnant with hope, with which tnev have been received by the majority of his countrymen. While, however, acknowledgment must, "be unreservedly accorded to the services rendered by Mr. Haldane in ■ improving the -organisation ot the regular army, and in providing for a great militia contingent intended to meet the extremely improbable eventuality of a foreign invasion, the real value of these creations should not be exaggerated. Nothing shall Ire said against tho regular army and its military importance, for 'facta Icquuntur'j wherever English troops have fought, whether m the Indian frontier districts, iiiEgvpt, or m the Boer Wars, they have, * as everybody knows, done their duty manfully, and the officers have proved that they are equal to the tasks imposed upon

The organisation of the Regular army however, although it is considerably improved by Mr. Haldane's expeditionary force,_ is still hardly to be considered as a serious factor in great military undertakings against a modern, great army, and outside England, especially as this expeditionary army is too cumbersome and too much dependent on vccrnitin» considerations. The fact may be mentioned that the recruiting officers can even now supply only SO per cent, of the demand. Furthermore, the necessities of the Indian Army have to be taken into account.

The fact that the British military ; i authorities are known to be experiment- ■ ing with an automatic rifle adds interest ' ' to the description of the Mexican 1 weapon, i which appears in "Anns and .the -Man" i (Aew York). llr: E. C. Crossman, who j describes the llondragon automatic rifle, adopted by Mexico, believes it has solved the, problem of a satisfactory rifle for ' troops. Mr. Crossman says: "The Hon- ' dragon rille is not an automatic /in the ' strict sense of the word, it requiring, a . pull of the trigger to fire.each shot, and .■: being therefore .a self-loader, but the word has come to mean an arm of the : self-loading class, -and is used here in - ' this sense. The only true automatic arms • are, of course, those of Maxim, Colt, and i '.1 Benet-Mercie class, loading and .firing ' themselves as long as' the ammunition | supply is kept up, and the sear is held ; out of the way of the striker. In appear-. . '! ance the rifle is not unlike the new i Springfield, the barrel being cased in both above and below to a point six inches •' from the muzzle. A bolt handle sticks . straight out from .the right side of the ' . : breech, and a box magazine protrudes ' about two and a half inches below the receiver. Where the bolt would be on-'-" ' the new Springfield is a long, fixed cylin- ■ dej- with a milled head,' containing a coiled spring, and affording a passageway for the bolt when the rifle is lived. The breech is much longer than the new Springfield, and the rifle, like all automatics, is clumsy appearing. It is a gas. operated arm, following the essential ' ; character of the Colt and' the BenetMercie in machine guns and the standard sporting rifle in self-loading arms. The Mondragon is fitted with a bolt not un- - like that of tlm new Springfield, but lock- \ ing with a ,slight turn instead of the j full quarter turn necessary to lock rifles of the Mauser type. "The nnij ,'assino is of the Mauser type, J but fitted' with a four-leaved spring instead of the two-leaved type used on the - V.j Mauser and new Springfield. Its; capacity i is ten cartridges. The loading is by means ot a clip. ■ One of the most, in- ■ genious devices ou the rifle is the arranges;. ment for converting it into a hand operated arm. The valve by "which the . gas is taken from the barrel to tho cylinder, is of the two-way type, and is fitted ■ : a handle by which it can be turned. ■ By means'of this handle the gas may be : diverted from the cylinder through a dif- ; ferent port into the open air. This leaves ; the gas motor part of the mechanism motionless . regardless of the .shots that ■ may be fired. Tho only movement neces- - sary to make the change is that of turn- ~ ing the vialve handle, situated where the furestock ends; near the muzzle. Tho severing of connection between the operating lever ana the connecting rod is «n- ■ tirely devoid of extra effort oil the part ' of the soldier, the pressure of his fingers on the .handle of the bolt mechanism. / , the'nook and uncoupling tho . connecting rod. A spring presses the hook back into place each time tho ' handle is_. released, replacing the connection with the automatic mechanism. The gas taken from the barrel is so little >-!

that the difference in. Telocity is prac-« tieally nil. The gas is taken from :i port not six inches from the muzzle, and too late to affect the pressure on the bullet. The fouling experienced on most arms of the' gas operated type is doiio itway with on the Mondragon, the arm cleaning itself and relubricating the piston chamber with each motion. The arm weighs hut nine "pounds four ounces, about tho same as the new Springfield's average weight—although the latter is listed nt eight and three-quarter pounds. This is worthy of note—that the extra mechanism used on the rifle does not affect the re-sight of the arm to any appreciable extent. Tho rifle lias a capacity of sixty shots per. minute, . and has been tested', out thoroughly without failing. ' One of the tests consisted in firing the rifle im- - till the barrel expanded .15-inch in length'' from the heat, and the, stock caught fire., without a single baulk on the part of the mechanism. Mexico thus is the first nation to take up the automatic rifle for her troons, and. from .present results, the rifle decided upon will give perfect satisfaction. Germany has'armed several regiments with the automatic rifle for test, France is flirting with it, and the Unit»d States, like England, is testinff out dozens of different designs of self-loader guns."