DEFENCE NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 834, 4 June 1910, Page 12

DEFENCE NOTES.

fflr Eoheloh.) Tho Commander-in-Chief in India has sanctioned tbo employment of Major I' , . A. Maxwell, V.C., in ■ Australia. This officor is brigado major of the Ambala Cavalry Brigado, and hjs employment in the Commonwealth will be for one year in connection with the new defence schemes. Tho official return of the strength of tho British Territorial Force, dated April 1, gives the strength as follows: — Complete London. Totals. Yeomanry 2,223 24,219 Artillery 4,350 29,658 Garrison Artillery ... 417 9,356 Engineers 1,763 12,896 Infantry 21,565 173,670 A.S.C 786 7,577 R.A.M.C 1,666 11,849 A.V.C — — 33,070 269,225 The shortage 13'33,626 of all ranks. These figures ought to famish evidence of the weakness of a voluntary system of enlistment. Colonel Bridges, Commandant of tis Commonwealth Military College, said in a recent interview that he bad visited West Point College, and bad plans and documents which were expected to aid. Australia to realise tb* dream of .possession of a great annj school. The idea of a scheme for training Australian officers originated with Lord Kitchener, and as a result he (Colomel Bridges) was sent to America to study the plan and scope of the military academy at West Point, which was considered by Lotd Kitchener to be the peer of such institutions. Hil visit to the academy was the most instructive of his career, and if Australia could afford the money he would recommend the establishment of an institution on similar Hues. There 'were only 350 cadets in the academy, which cost the United States Government £270,000 yearly, against £60,000 at Sandhurst Academy, England. West Point could not be compared with Sandhurst or Woolwich Colleges, as West Point trained cadets in all branches of the service. Only once since the competition was inaugurated has such a phenomenal score been registered as was put up by the Granville College (Australia) team in the "Daily Mail" Empire Match on Empire Day, and that was the year before last, when East London (Natal) aggregated the extraordinary score 01 824. Tho collegians fired at Flemington, a somewhat easier range than Randwick. Commencing in the early morning, when conditions atmospheric were almost ideal, they put together 816 points for the teams of x eight men. At all ranges possibles wore in evidence, njid the average of 102 per man out of 105 is eloquent testimony to the accuracy of the Granville lads' fire. During the last few months the Granville contingent have been shooting remarkably well in the M.D.R.A. competitions, and this culminating score is a tribute to the excellent work of the club officers in keeping the team together so constantly at practice. A deputation from the Miniature Rifle Association 'of Victoria and the Metropolitan Rifle Club Association recently waited upon the Australian Minister for Defence and requested that a_ sum be placed on next year's Estimates to encourage the movement. The Minister, in reply, said that he.was willing to do whatever ho could, and whatever his experts advised was of value from tho defence point of view. When a deputation from tho riflo clubs last waited upon him he suggested that the matter be submitted to the different Commandants. A number of reports had been received. Most were favourable to miniature rifle shooting being of value from a defence point or view. One officer most qualified to report oh the question said that a great deal of the shooting-now carried out by miniature clubs was too often a perfectly useless form of sport.

Some interesting experiments were carried out at Tcura Ranges, • neat Helouan, Egypt, reoently, with a new target, the invention of Dr. H. Hilton, a well-known Cairo ■ physician, who ifl president of the British . Rifle Club. The target, which is designed fox'map shooting, is a great improvement on any of the existing forma of service targets. Firing is-carried out from behind cover, the men being squadded ia pairs and shooting against each other. The loophole through which" they fire is provided with a shutter which the firor has to open before he can take aim. By an ingenious contrivance the opening of the shutter brings up a target opposite the opponent's loophole.' When a target is hit it automatically closes the shutter of the opponent's loophole, and also signals a hit by showing a white plate with red oross. 'Whea the hit 'is recorded the targets can be reset from the firing-point, no markere or butt-men being required. The targets are head and shoulder figure plates of , tempered 3teel. Some very interesting duels were ■witnessed, the contestants being picked BhotSi 'the figures feinted and ducked in a most life-like manner, the effect being that of a.man under cover occasionally exposing his head and shoulders when firing. Undoubtedly, this target represents the last word in realism, the conditions being as near to active service ones as is possible. Tho mechanism ia simple, strong, and not likely to get out of order; it can be quickly fitted up, and. may be used at any distance.

General Sir Edmtmd Barrow, commanding tie Southern Army of India, in a recent article-in the "National RevieWj"' prefaced Mb .observations by remarking that the dictum of Napoleon: "Fire , is everything—the, rest is of small account," is hardly one that, will bo disputed at the present day. for, if true a hundred years agoy when tho. musket was the arm of infantry and tho smooth-bore cannon that of artillery, how infinitely more so must it be in the twentieth century, when the progress of science has gjven us the magazine rifle and the quick-firer, when the effective range of infantry has been more than quadrupled, and when artillery fire can bo brought to bear from hidden positions several miles away? Indeed, so enormously has the value o{ firo been increased that it is on the sound application of this Napoleonic maxim that victory will in future depond. In fact, it is only by tho superiority of its firo that, apart from the accidents of war, a small army, ecch as ours, can hope to defeat one to which it is greatly inferior in numerical strength. It follows, therefore, he f-iys, that a nation which is unable from any cause to place in the liold those great masses of drilled soldiery which are the distinctive feature of modern Europe, must ondeavour to counterbalance the advantage of numbers by developing to tho utmost the individual 3lrifl of the soldier in the nso of his weapon and the proper application of collective firo by all arms. This theory, if an obvious axiom can be called a theory, is pan tioularly applicable to bho British Aiinjs.