The Easter Manoeuvres at Houle.

Evening Star, Issue 7233, 8 June 1887, Page 3

The Easter Manoeuvres at Houle.

A BAYONET EXPERIMENT. Mr H. C. Burdett sends to ‘ The Times ’ the history of an experiment made just after the manoeuvre with bayonets of the City of London Artillery Volunteers. The men were ordered to run their sword-bayonets into a mass of cotton-waste enclosed in a truss of straw—a very easy test. The bayonets, however, all bent like billhooks, and it was found that they could be straightened with the hand. The colonel’s sword, which was also rammed into the truss, passed through it easily, and came out unharmed. It is more than possible that all the bayonets supplied to the Volunteers arc of the same kind, and that the force has for the last ten years been carrying weapons about as useful as lath swords. They will he renewed, we have no doubt, and fortunately it is not too late ; but it is painful to think that those who allowed and probably profited by this gross fraud will escape all punishment. Some day or other our countrymen will pay a heavy price for the irrational lenity with which they treat every kind of traitor, and especially traitors for cash. THE CYCLISTS’ CORPS. Referring to one of the most striking of the new features that were to be introduced at the English Easter military manoeuvres, the 1 St, James’s Budget’says : —“ A corps of cyclists is to accompany the Volunteer column on its march to Dover for the Easter review. They will perform the duties of scouts, and be employed on general service during the march. It is quite possible that bicycles and tricycles may come to form a regular part of the equipment of an army on the march. English cyclists still maintain their superiority over those of other nations, and we may hope that the cycling branch of our army will attain a high standard of proficiency. The worst of it is that if military cycling is officially recognised the Government will doubtless provide our troops with untrustworthy machines, liable to break down upon the slightest provocation and impossible to repair at any distance from the base of operations.” Another novelty was to he a complete pigeon service. The country between Sandwich and Eastbourne—some 60 miles was to be over-run by the enemy’s scouts, his mounted pioneers, and cavalry patrols, and steps had been taken to ensure the continuance of communication with Dover in spite of the presence of a surrounding enemy. Although hemmed in on all sides, and apparently completely isolated, the British forces were nob to remain ignorant of cash other’s intentions and movements. The services of a number of trained messenger pigeons had been secured to carry news over the enemy’s head between the two forces. The benefits of this arrangement were not to he limited to Doveh and Eastbourne alone. Every movement of hostile ships between Portsmouth and Shecrness was to be at once reported. Dover would receive news by pigeon from Sandwich, Canterbury, Tunbridge, Eastbourne, Portsmouth, and London, and would despatch winged messengers direct to Deal, Sheerness, Canterbury, and Tunbridge, Portsmouth, uncertain of the safety of her telegraph lines, was to employ pigeons to carry news into Loudon. A complete circle of pigeon communication had therefore been established. The whole of Kent and Sussex, with a piece of Hampshire, would on Easter Monday discard the telegraph, and, like the Parisians in 1870, rely upon pigeons as message-bearers.