644
detachments, and the parties for removing obstacles, an army would be incessantly delayed, independently of the necessity for much larger operations on great rivers and on the general lines of railway. The changes that have taken place and are continually taking place in the detail of engineer organization and equipment simply consist in the adaptation to military purposes of the progressive advance of science. Otherwise there is little to note in any changes of organization in the corps. The development of hasty entrenchment in connexion with the movement of armies in action has become and promises to become still more one of the most marked features of the present phase of war. It is at least as important on the offensive as on the defensive side. The Boer war has concentrated attention on the extreme importance of the rapid transfer of shooting power from point to point of a field of battle or of a campaign. Mounted qqie exceptional circumstances of the campaign Infantry. perhaps tended to leave an undue impression, both of the degree in which this is a novelty and of the extent to which it promises to dominate future warfare. Napoleon gained most of his exceptionally brilliant battles during the 1814 campaign, when with a handful of men he was keeping back the overwhelming masses of Allied Europe by this very means. He moved from side to side of the theatre of war the whole of his brigade of guards on country carts. It must be understood that the horses or cobs that are employed with the detachments of infantry, who have been trained at Aldershot and elsewhere, are only intended to supply the place of Napoleon’s country carts. It may for various reasons be doubted whether under most conditions of warfare the cart is not the vehicle to be preferred. It is a question of circumstance. The Boers were a nation of trained riders and trained shots. In its Colonial troops and in some of the home yeomanry the British Empire possesses similar material. It is obviously desirable to utilize this material. The question is altogether apart from that change of the equipment, role, and training of the cavalry arm, which has been discussed under cavalry. At present there is no organized body of mounted infantry as such as a peace branch of the British army. For the purposes of the Boer war regularly formed brigades of mounted infantry have been created out of the various contingents of mounted infantry furnished by home battalions and the Colonial corps. There can be no doubt that, especially in a country like England of numerous and excellent roads giving immediate access to favourable ground in which to delay Cyclists. anj pUzzie an invading enemy, the bicycle has established itself as a most valuable agent in war. It is certain that the tendency of time will be greatly to enhance its importance not merely for the purposes for which it has been frequently used, those of saving horses by its use for orderlies and for scouting, but for delivering more considerable bodies within the fighting area. There are such large numbers of men available who can both shoot and ride, or who can do one and would easily learn to do the other, that it is impossible that this valuable material should be long left to go to waste. Only practice and organization are needed to develop a most useful auxiliary in the defence of the country, and the volunteer companies that have been started promise to be the forerunners of a new arm for the British army. The transport and supply departments have been formed into the Army Service Corps, organized by companies with senior officers locally appointed, very much Army as is done in the case of the royal artillery. The CoT^'s6
[BRITISH
ARMIES
Army Service Corps is administered through these senior officers directly from the War Office, under the orders of the several general-officers commanding dis-
tricts. The officers appointed to the Army Service Corps after a probation from regiments of the line, during peace time undertake the purchase of forage, and have under their immediate supervision such transport as is kept up during peace time. They have the privilege of being appointed to the staff for what are known as B duties, that is, virtually for the work of the quartermaster-generars department—food-supply and transport for man and beast. Contracts for these are made by them under the authority of general - officers. They superintend the bakery establishments and the abattoirs. Hitherto in the matter of transport one large branch has been distributed to battalions under the title of “ regimental transport.” It was taken charge of and cared for by the battalions. It would seem probable, from the reports on the subject made by Lord Boberts, that this arrangement will be modified. Originally it was designed to enable regiments to have transport always available for their immediate needs on the march, and to bring up their supplies from the local depot. This was objected to in Africa, because it deprived the army at large of the services of that part of the transport which belonged to battalions not at the time on the move. The Army Ordnance department was reconstituted on 31st March 1900. The Army Ordnance Corps is immedi0 ately under the director-general of ordnance, and Ordnance. n. c ••in consists, as to officers, of a principal ordnance officer ranking as major-general, of eight Ist-class ordnance officers ranking as colonels, of fifteen 2nd-class ordnance officers ranking as lieutenant-colonels, of twenty-five 3rdclass ranking as majors, of fifty-three 4th-class, of commissaries of ordnance, deputy commissaries of ordnance, assistant-commissaries of ordnance. It is charged with providing, receiving, holding, and issuing munitions of war, military stores, clothing for use in camps, and both clothing and necessaries for use in the field. The corps consists of eleven companies with a depot company. It is, so far as the personnel of these companies with their non-commissioned officers and men is concerned, administered from Woolwich by the ordnance officer, 2nd class, who is in command of the depot there. He acts for this purpose as staff-officer to the director-general of ordnance. It is, however, difficult to say whether the functions of this department are more important at home or in the field. Some estimate of the nature of its functions may be formed by the following list of articles sent out to South Africa before the fall of Pretoria. We have not the figures of a later date, but obviously the special strain was prior to that event. Afterwards it became simply a question of keeping up such further supplies as were asked for. We record the figures chiefly because we believe them for a despatch to a campaign 7000 miles off to be unique in the world’s history. Ammunition. Over „ „ ,, Nearly „
105,000 rounds for the ,, 330,000 ,, 30,000 ,, 20,000 ,, 21,000 ,, 380,000
12-pr. horse artillery gun 15-pr. field gun 5-in. howitzer 5-in. gun 47 gun pom-pom (37 millimetres)
Clothing. Drab suits . Khaki suits . Boots (pairs) Woollen drawers Jerseys Worsted socks Cotton socks Flannel belts Flannel shirts
much over 200,000 . about 80,000 . over 370,000 „ 400,000 ,, 200,000 „ 850,000 „ 170,000 ,, 400,000 ,, 500,000
