Oct. 6.
Before the Shanghai Volunteer Corps bids farewell to its guns, it is hoped that: there will be a last! parade of the two old units at] which the Shanghai public can join in the expressions of gratitude! already made by the Council. In other fields of military activity, the guns are usually the last things to be surrendered. But in Shanghai the conditions are different. The arguments put forward to the Municipal Council for the abolition of the artillery units are almost unanswerable, when the economic position of the Settlement is considered. In the case of the Light Gun Battery the equipment has become obsolete and could only be renewed, at great cost—unless some foreign' Power came forward, as in the past, and lent new guns. So far as both batteries are concerned, there is the difficulty of arranging proper practice areas, the nearest, since the Chinese Government objected to the firing that used to be done at Woosung, being Hongkong, and the expense prohibitive. There is also the question of the deterioration of ammunition, which would have to be made good if the batteries are be effective or, to go further, not to be a menace to the people they: are here to defend. For the most expert gun-layer can never be 1 ammunition is liable to let him down. Defective ammunition was tone of the chief causes of complaint against the artillery during the last war, and provided wh: ever grounds there were for complaints that the gunners were shell-{ing the men in their own front line trenches. The complaint was seldom justified, but where it was, the blame was due more to the departments at Home who supplied the ammunition than to the men the spot who used it, And the men on the spot on that occasion were professional gunners; most of them trained on the intensive system, it is true, but all of them experienced in firing live ammunition and with their theoretical training reinforced by the experience of the battlefield or the range. There is therefore some force behind the Commandant of the S.V.C's belief that the facilities for training of the artillery unity under his command are not up to the standard required for operation a city area such as is Shanghai.
Those who remember the visit regular British artillery batteries from Hongkong in 1927 will: not easily allow the impression of their effclency to diminish. One of the commanders at that time was asked how long it would be before he could hit the Cathay Hotel, if that reply was that, with guns he.knew and ammunition he could trust, he could, from the Race Course," hit the hotel whenever he liked. "The question really was: What room in the hotel was it desired to hit? He would not guarantee to place every shell in the middle of the table of that room, but he could, given an adequate description where the room was, almost guarantee to land shell into it which'would seriously inconvenience the occupant Boasts such as this presuppose a knowledge of the guns to be used and a confidence in the ammunition which are almost impossible in a Volunteer Corps which is forbidden by circumstances to indulge in practice. Each shell fired from a gun causes wear and tear in the weapon which has to be taken into account periodically by those in charge of it, and at certain intervals makes it necessary for the gun to be returned to the Ordnance Department for overhauling. Only by firing the gun can the margin of error consequent upon its frequent use be estimated. And in Shanghai that firing proved in recent years to be impossible, and there therefore entered a certain amount of speculation into the accuracy of the guns at anything-but more than almost point-blank range that rendered them less an asset than a liability to the other defenders of the Settlement, That clement of uncertainty could not be overcome by the occasional visits of the bat teries to Hongkong for practical training, since the guns used in Hongkong belonged to the garrison there, and were almost certainly quite different from those the mem= bers of the batteries would have been called upon to use in Shang~ methods of operation, but in the effects of old age and other things, It is to be hoped that the history of these two famous units in the S.V.C., the Field Artillery Battery and the Light Gun Battery, will not brought to a sudden end by the Council's latest decision. Many a battery in the Great War, its guns blown to smithereens by devastate ing bombardments, turned to with rifle and bayonet and did its bit with the infantry in the trenches, with what remnants remained of its original personnel. As the standard of shooting of the local artilleryman proved on Sunday, there is no reason why they should not range themselves with the foot units of the S: V.C. and prove themselves just as good in any emergency. In fact, it is a tradition of the Royal Artillery that there is nothing a foot-slogger can do that an arttlleryman cannot do better, and that, on active service, there are many engineering problems which are solved daily by the gunner which would puzzle the sapper if he met them. This belief may, of course, be due to the pride and tradition inherited from heroes of the past. But the history of the gunners in war does much to support it. Even the story of the early days of the artillery in Shanghai can be cited in proof, when guns were galloped over open country, across ditches and over ploughed fields, to take part in battles such as' that of Muddy Flats. With the changes which have occurred inside and outside Shanghai in succeeding decades, the gunners have had to take up position more and more in the reserve lines. Through no fault of their own, it should be stated; but simply because the conditions of defence of the Interni tional Settlement have postulated it, The questions the. administra~ tion have had to ask themselves in these altered conditions are, in a nutshell: Is. it possible to. keep artillery batteries. manned amateurs in' Shanghai without more facilities from expert training than are now available? 'The answer, in view of the prohibitions on'firing practice and the calls from other directions upon members of the units, has been no, And, secondly, is it' worth while keeping the units when the Shanghat Municipal Council is struggling to cut down its expenditure without increasing the rates of its already well-taxed ratepayers? They are units which all for periodical capital expenditure if they are to be efficient: is the expenditure worth it? The answer {o these questions has also been in the negative, Thus Shanghai must bid farewell to two bodies which have played conspicuous parts in its defence almost from the earliest time: It hopes to be able to pay a last tribute of respect to these, units before they disband, but it entertains the belief that the men who have in recent years done so much to preserve their traditions will not allow their services to be lost to the S.V.C. as a result of the Council's decision.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.