Colonel J. F. C. Fuller, lecturing before the Royal United Service Institution, gave two reasons why, in his opinion, the further evolution of the tank was a certainty. In the first place, the tank combined in a high degree security, mobility, and offensive power, and there was nothing to stop its speed growing from five to 25 miles an hour or its radius of action developing from 25 miles to 150 or even 500. In the second place, gas would play a large part in all future wars, and against that method of attack the tank could be made gas-proof. Road capacity and the transport of supplies had been among the. great problems of land warfare, but with the coming of the tank, which was independent of roads and was self-contained in the matter of supplies, these problems would occasion less concern in the future.
Major-General Sir J. E. Capper, who presided, said that experience had demonstrated that the tank could not be built and ready for action under a year, and if we were a year behind in that respect at the beginning of a war we must be behind all through the war.
Major-General Swinton expressed the opinion that in future wars not only tanks, but all the resources of science and nature, such as gases, lethal rays, and even deadly germs, would be used as weapons of warfare by all or any armies engaging in international conflict.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.