er,
will defeat this plan.

INFANTRY.

4. The present open formation renders it difficult for officers to
exercise command over their men, except such as may be in their
immediate vicinity. A remedy for this would appear to be a system of
whistle calls by which a company lying in extended order could obey
orders as readily as if in quarter column. I invite suggestions for
such a system of whistle calls as would be useful.

5. It is difficult to recognise officers as equipped at present, and
it seems desirable they should wear a distinguishing mark of some
kind, either on the collar at the back of the neck, or on the back of
the coat.

6. Soldiers, when under fire, do not take sufficient advantage of the
sandy nature of the soil to construct cover for themselves. If such
soil is scraped even with a canteen lid, a certain amount of cover
from rifle fire can be obtained in a short time.

7. The distribution of ammunition to the firing line is one of the
most difficult problems of modern warfare. One solution, which has
been suggested to me, is for a portion of the supports gradually to
creep forward until a regular chain of men is established from the
supports (where the ammunition carts should be) right up to the firing
line. The ammunition could then be gradually worked up by hand till it
reached the firing line, where it could be passed along as required.
This would, no doubt, be a slow method of distributing ammunition, but
it appears to be an improvement on the present method, which is almost
impossible to carry out under fire.

8. Reports received suggest that the Boers are less likely to hold
entrenchments _on the plain_ with the same tenacity and courage as
they display when defending kopjes, and it is stated that this applies
especially to night time, if they know that British infantry are
within easy striking distance from them. How far this is true time
only can show.

ROBERTS, Field-Marshal,
Commanding-in-Chief, South Africa.

END OF VOL. I.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1.

REINFORCEMENTS SANCTIONED ON THE 8th SEPTEMBER, 1899.

+--------------------+
| STRENGTH |
Officers
|----
| Other Ranks
| |------
| | Horses
| | |-----
| | | Guns