To the Editor of the Noura-Cmisa Datty News, Sim,—I read with much interest the article in your issue this morning on "High Explosives in War." But in quoting the opinion of the eye-witness anent the Cairo experiment you have mentioned something which is misleading to the general public, 'The gentleman in question was, I understand, not x trained gunner, and' therefore failed to grasp the true significance of the partial failure of Lyddite as destructive agent. The conviction in Artillery circles is I believe this; The howitzer is not a battering gun, it has a very low initial velocity and consequently small penetrative power. What happened. at the Cairo experiment therefore, was that the shells, instend of going into' the wall and bursting, practically" bounced back from it, and so, when they exploded, were vhot ina position to do the amount of damage expected from them, and consequently the use of delay action fuses would ye only aggravated the failure, because obviously they would have caused the shell to be still furrier buck when the explosion came. Probably this was the cause also of fragments of the shells flying back in the manner mentioned.
Tan, ete., 22nd November.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.