§ GENERAL FRASER (Lambeth, N.)asked the Secretary of State for War, in view of the statement in his letter to the signatories appealing against the Horse Artillery reductions, that the first object for such reduction and conversion is an increase to the number of Field Artillery Batteries, in which this country is especially deficient, and consequently in the number of our more powerful and effective field guns, He still proposes to adhere to his decision that 14 batteries of Field Artillery in excess of the number required for two Army Corps—
Will be utilized for the purpose of forming an ammunition column in the event of the Army Corps being called upon service?
§ CAPTAIN COTTON (Chesire, Wirral)also asked, Whether it is the fact that it is proposed, in the new scheme for the organization of two Army Corps, to form 14 ammunition columns by breaking up for this purpose 14 four gun field batteries; whether this arrangement will deprive the Service, on the outbreak of war, of some 32 guns of Field Artillery, in which, as he states, in his letter of the 26th ultimo, "this country is especially deficient;" and, whether those guns are now reckoned on the effective strength of the Royal Artillery?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. E. STANHOPE) (Lincolnshire, Horncastle)Batteries, whether of Horse or Field Artillery, would, in time of war, be absolutely useless without ammunition columns. We have at present not one of these columns, nor any organization for furnishing them, on the outbreak of hostilities. They have, therefore, to be provided; and the question is, whether entirely new cadres are to be created, or whether they are to be furnished out of existing organizations? The first course would cause very great additional expense; whereas the latest addition to the Field Artillery makes it possible to form ammunition columns, as proposed, and yet leave batteries sufficient for two Army Corps. This latter plan has, 1266 therefore, been adopted; and, I may add that, so far from diminishing' our fighting strength by 32 guns, it makes efficient the whole of the batteries of two Army Corps which, otherwise, could not have taken the field.