VOLUNTEER NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11884, 6 May 1899, Page 10

VOLUNTEER NOTES.

f“ Canteeuubt Times,”] Last year tho Imperial Rifles especially distinguished themselves in tho matter ol open-air work, as opposed to the conventional drillshed business. This they followed up by a night of outpost duty in Hagley Park, receiving a little assistance ■from a few of the College Rifles and one or two of the Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry, who, in attempting to force the lines of defence, proved the vigilance of the sentries. This year the same class of work will be attempted upon a larger scale, and the. date has been fixed for to-night.. It is at present intended that three companies shall take part in the work. The defence, it is said, will bs under the command of Captain Cresavell, of the City Guards. An Australian writer says that the present field-gun of the British Army is the best field-gun in the world, and so rapid is change that these very guns of 1897-98 type are now to be converted into quickfiring field-guns. Tho field artillery of France, Russia and Germany are all being converted in the same direction, but they havo not got toe complete and serviceable gun that we have, neither for weight, range, durability, nor simplicity in action, work. The War Office works very slow but sure. It has not only produced by its inventors and skilled staff the best guns and ammunition, but now it has turned out the best quick-firing gun for our field - Horse and Royal Artillery. The feeding of toe quickfiring guns in action with ammunition has been solved for our army by recent experiments going on for some time. If Maxim machine and quick-firing field guns first get into hidden position and good range nothing can stand before such deadly weapons. Such instruments will end war before disarmaments. Colonial Governments should now order quick-firing guns, and have those now on hand converted at once. ■ Colonel Stormy Cave, commanding the Ist V.B. Hampshire Regiment, makes, says a recent number of the “Army and Navy Gazette,” an excellent suggestion for the improvement of the Army and Militia. It is this—that in order to get over the difficulty of inducing employers of labour to find employment for army reservists and. militiamen, the Government should take on itself toe liability, pow thrust on employers, to compensate a workman for accident when the workman in question is an army reserveman, a militiaman, or an efficient volunteer, and when' the accident is not attributable to any fault on the part of the employer. This would enable the employer who insured to claim a reduction in premium in proportion to the number of men among his workmen who were liable to military service, and would no doubt create a demand for such workmen with all small employers.. In short, it’ would place toe reserveman, militiaman, and the volunteer at a premium in the labour market instead of at a discount as he now is. As Colonel Cave argues, it is not to bo expected that the proposal will find favour all at once with toe Treasury, but there is so much to be said in favour of it that it well deserves to • be considered whether it would not in the long run actually prove an economy. It would unquestionably tend to benefit one force considerably, the militia, which labours now under a great disadvantage by reason of the disfavour with which those are regarded who have entered its ranks. A writer in toe “ Echo de Paris,” dealing with the question of the Dum Dum bullet, holds that that of the Lebel rifle renders all the service required and does not stand in need of improvement or modification. At 3000 metres the Lebel bullet traverses the fleshy portions of the human body and shatters the bones of the limbs. Tho penetrating power of the bullet is said to he enormous:—“During the Dahomey campaign a bullet was found to have passed through a. tree and through toe five natives who had taken shelter behind it. Tho French officers who have been able to-observe the effects of the bullet in Dahomey, Tonkin, and Madagascar declare that the men struck by the Lebel bullet in full trajectory fail at once after a convulsive leap. When the camp of General Dodds, during his march on Aboroey, was the object of a surprise attack, the terrible effectiveness of the Lebel bullets was proved in the most signal fashion.” The writer concludes by saying that the French have no reason to feel alarmed at the complaints made of the ineffectiveness under certain conditions of the British magazine rifle bullet of-small calibre. “If the LeeMetford rifle,” he says, “ has given unsatisfactory results, the blame does not rest with the small-calibre bullet.” Sir Redvers Buller makes the following pungent criticism on the field firing of the regular troops at Bisley during February last:—“Fire discipline is a drill intended to produce a second nature, whereby the fire of excited men can be regularly controlled ; it is not intended to prevent men firing in self-defence. We adopt volleyfiring as part of our regular systematic attack ; emergencies require independent firing. If a line of the enemy appears in front of the firing-line, commanders of fire units should not wait for, orders, but direct independent fire at once. Section commanders are too slow. Battles are not won by jacks-in-boxes, but by resolute men, who, pushing , info toe fray, acquire that enthusiasm which compels victory.” The General also comments upon the importance (generally overlooked) of commanders making such-dispositions in the conduct of field-firing as will give the latter as full an air of reality as possible. The “ Broad Arrow” comments on his criticism as follows:—Year after year, with “damnable iteration ” do our chiefs call for realism in field-firing. Even Sir Redvers Buller feels bound to fall in with the time-honoured precedent in his remarks on the operations at Bisley last week. The passage has become as expected and as formal as the Queen s speech. • It can only be. said that any company officer realising it when performing as an integer of a “'fine of separate unite should be “ selected ” on the spot as being j of more than common sort. Whilst thus j preserving one tradition Sir Redvers has ; ruthlessly demolished another. His anim- j adversions on “bobbing up” and “bobbing down ” will rob minor commanders of one,/ of their most-cherished manosuvres. Yet -,t was well to remind such that “battles are not won by jacks-in-boxes, but by resolute j men, who pushing into the fray acquire that i enthusiasm which compels victory. Tak- j ing advantage of cover is one thing, but playing “peep-ho ” is quite another. The bobbing np and bobbing down that Sir Reavers Buffer complains of is an entirely useless and pernicious performance in nine cases out of ten. For example, halting in rear of a crest and bobbing up to fire over i cannot possibly afford so good a fii-e position as advancing a little further so as to be a e to see over without rising. JacKs-i boxes” may, however he sometimes necessary—for instance, in high standing corn. Classes of instruction in ballooning will assemble at Aldershot on June 6 and bept. 19 next, each dass lasting twenty-one days Only officers who have qualified for stall employment and who do not exceed thirteen stone in weight, will be allowed to attend. Names of officers who fulfil the loregoing < conditions will bo submitted by baga e and corps (except Royal Engineers) for the first class on May 6, and for the second class on August 19. When toe attendance of officers at these, classes lias been approved, they are not afterwards to apply f° r ! permission to withdraw their names, except under very special circumstances. Officers will not ba instructed as trained balloonists, but only in the use of a faauoan as staff officers. The Commandant of the School of Mus- | ketry, Hytho, has issued his report upon j the..musketry practices during the year 1893, j and'it is satisfactory to learn that the shoot- , ing of the British Regular Army compares i favourably with the performances of other armies. There is plenty, of material for j

careful study in Colonel Hamilton’s .report —several points in particular suggest ,themselves for remark, but it is impossible to deal wito them until next week. / Tho condition of the volunteer battalions of a regiment in the northern district is astounding. The six battalions have an average ifbiongsfc them of over 90 pea- cent of second-class shots. One battalion has* .actually 100 per cent of second-class shots—mr, in other words, not a man in it .has-.fired one single round beyond 200yds, except perhaps a certain number who have attempted but failed to qualify as first-class shots! Such battalions cannot seriously bo regarded as fighting units. Eleven non-commissioned officers at Aldershot have qualified as battalion chiropodists. This is a result of the course of instruction in chiropody which was instituted at the beginning of the year. .The six noncommissioned officers who passed first will be employed as chiropodists with pay.