The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-11-21 00:00:00

THE MACHINE-GUN.

At the Royal United Service Institution, Whitehall,
General Viscount Wolseley presided over a meeting
mainly composed of members of the services, assem-
bled to hear a lecture by Major M. R. West, Royal
Horse Artillery, advocating the adoption of the one-
barrel machine-gun (which was tried at Shoeburyness
before the Machine-gun Committee in the winter of
1880-81) for land service. The gun in question, a
Gardner, was twice exhibited previous to the lecture;
first on a gun-carriage in Whitehall-yard, in the
hands of Royal Horse Artillery, screwed on
to the limber of a 9-pounder gun, and afterwards
on the floor of the institution standing on a tripod.
The barrel is of rifle calibre with a brass or gun-metal
box in place of the stock. The feeder is a tall,
grooved, upright metal frame at right angles
to the barrel, and down this frame the cartridges fall
by their own weight. When the gun received the
favour of the Machine-gun Committee it was intended
for naval use, and it has been so used. Among the
company present were General Lord Chelmsford,
General Sir A. Herbert, Admiral Sir E. Fanshawe,
Admiral Arthur, Captain Lord Charles Beresford,
R.N., General Sir E. Hamley, General Smythe,
Major-General Laurie, Colonel Lord William Sey-
mour, Mr. Nordenfelt, Mr. James H. Crossman,
Colonel Greene, and Colonel Markham. Lord
Wolseley, who was warmly received, briefly intro-
duced the lecturer, whose subject, he said, was of the
utmost importance and interest to both the land and
sea service. The lecturer then pointed out that there
was great undeveloped power and value in the machine-
gun for land service, and he submitted that there
had been too much supineness in the matter
of the adaptation of these guns to the land
service. He urged that the machine-gun should
have the service ammunition, and then proceeded
to describe the uses to which the gun might be put
in all branches of the land services. With garrison
artillery the value of the machine-gun for the flank-
ing of ditches was obvious, and he dwelt on their use
with the engineers. Then, too, they could be used in
resisting or in covering landings, and he advocated
the use of two in each squadron of cavalry, displaying
a pack on which the gun might be mounted on a
horse, and further suggested that they could be used
on outposts, detached posts, advanced and rear
guards, and for the holding of defiles and bridges.
Ho also contended for the value of a machine-gun on
the limber of a 9-pounder, for instance, for the pro-
tection of a battery when limbered tip from the
attacks of cavalry, and he explained the working of
the gun by infantry,. Lord Charles Beresford, who
was warmly received, expressed his great interest in
the questions thus set before the meeting, and gave
some of his own experiences with the machine-guns
in Egypt, remarking that the trial on land in
Alexandria after the fire was proof of the possibility
of a small body armed with machine-guns deal-
ing with large bodies of people. He expressed, how-
ever, his preference fora machine-gun of the Norden-
felt three or four barrel type, as giving the value of a
service of riflemen at once, and a tremendous power in
the volley firing. He remarked, too, upon the use the
French had made of the machine-gun at Sfax, and
added that the British had not in the service a
weapon which could do a similar service. He urged
the necessity of a more general adoption of machine-
guns in the British service. Major-General Laurie
dwelt upon the immense serNice which had been ren-
dered in the North-Western rebellion by machine-
guns of the Gatling type ;- and Admiral Arthur bore
testimony to the value of the machine-gun on board
ship, speaking particularly of the four-barrelled Nor •
denfelt as a range finder. General Smythe expressed
his doubts as to the working of the machine-guns in
the field, and of the difficulties caused by rough
ground. After other speakers, Lord Wolseley stated,
amid cheers, that the army of this country must
have machine guns and that the authorities had de-
cided that the land service was to have that arma-
ment. The type of guns was yet to be decided, and
experience would develop the tactical use of the
weapon. Hitherto it had been supposed that Wool-
wich had stood in the way as an obstructive, and
therefore he congratulated the meeting upon the fact
that an artillery officer had brought forward this
matter. He considered that the great value of the
machine-guns had been proved in the Soudan war,
but for his part he would not pin himself to a one-
barrel gun, regarding it as necessary that there should
be several barrels to each gun, as in the Nordenfelt
guns, with which Lord Beresford "pumped lead"
into the enemy's gunners, when, below Khartoum,
the rescue of Sir Charles Wilson's party had to be
effected. Thanks were voted to the lecturer and to
Lord Wolseley.