CAPTAIN PRICEasked the Surveyor General of Ordnance, Whether it is yet decided on what system the 81-ton gun now being made is to be rifled, and what nature of projectile is to be used; and, whether it is the case, that no 35-ton gun has fired 100 rounds of battering charges without requiring repairs; and, if so, whether he would recommend the First Lord of the Admiralty to order some such practical test as would represent the work these guns might be called upon to perform in war time at a distance from the arsenal, to be carried out on board one of Her Majesty's ships, in order that the endurance of these guns may be tried under conditions such as they are intended to meet, before constructing very much larger guns on the 1906 same principle, and placing them afloat, as is intended in the "Inflexible," at a cost of half a million sterling?
§ LORD EUSTACE CECIL, in reply, said, the system on which the 81-ton gun was to be rifled and the nature of the projectile had already been decided upon. The 35-ton gun had fired over 100 rounds without any repair being apparently required, although, in one instance, the gun had to be re-vented. The Secretary of State for War was quite satisfied with the practical test which the heavy guns had undergone and were undergoing; and there seemed to be no reason for recommending any special test of the nature mentioned in the hon. and gallant Members Question.