in which our most vital interests are involved. If we were satisfied that our authorities for determining this matter were so constituted that it could be safely left in their hands, we should be well content to await the result. We believe very little in the wisdom of a rush of public opinion relieving authority of its necessary responsibility. We believe very little in the possibility of technical details being thrashed out to any advantage under ordinary circumstances by writers in the public press. But the case is different, if there be reason to fear that on matters of the broadest principle, on points on which every intelligent Englishman can judge for himself, we have been for a long time going utterly astray. After years of careful watching and some troublesome investigation, we have come slowly to the conviction that this is so; that we, cannot rely upon the nature and mode of investigation which is applied at present to the question of our proper national armament. We are convinced that there are vital defects, the danger of which an experience of more than twenty years has demonstrated, in the mode in which our authorities in this matter are constituted. We believe that the time has come when a searching public investigation of the whole matter is absolutely necessary, and the purpose of this article is to show cause why – precisely because we believe with Colonel Maitland that the necessity for a very costly rearmament is upon us – we ought not to expend one penny upon it, until, before either a Parliamentary Committee or a very strong Royal Commission, the whole subject has been thoroughly thrashed out.
It happens most opportunely that a Commission has quite recently reported to the President of the United States upon this very subject – the right method of securing a proper armament.[1] The American Government, having now virtually paid off the vast debt which the civil war entailed upon them, have decided that the time has come when they should no longer efface themselves as a military and naval power. Accordingly, as a preliminary step, recognising that paramount importance which attaches to this matter of the provision of a proper supply of guns, they decided to have an inquiry made as to the best system which a nation can adopt in order to obtain a proper supply of the best form of ordnance. A Board was constituted, with Rear-Admiral E. Simpson as president, and five other officers representing the Navy, the Ordnance, the Engineers, and the Artillery, as members. An Act of Congress was approved on March 3, 1883, which declared that the Board was created
"for the purpose of examining and reporting to Congress which of the navy yards or arsenals owned by the Government has the best location and is best adapted for the establishment of a Government foundry, or what other method, if any, should be adopted for the manufacture of heavy ordnance adapted to modern warfare, for the use of the army and navy of the United States; the cost of all buildings, tools, and implements necessary to be used in the manufacture thereof, including the cost of a steam-hammer or apparatus of sufficient size for the manufacture of the heaviest guns."
- ↑ Report of Gun Foundry Board, 48th Congress, U.S.A., 1st Session. Forwarded in a Message of February 18, 1884, to the Senate and House of Representatives, by President Arthur.
