§ COLONEL DUNCAN (Finsbury, Holborn)asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether the inquiry into the recent explosions of improvised blank cartridges for Nordenfelt guns in the Evolutionary Squadron has cast any reflection upon the efficiency of the guns themselves, their manufacture, or upon the Service ammunition supplied for their use?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing), in reply, said, that the recent accidents on board the Curlew and Black Prince were due to defective blank ammunition being used, and no reflection was passed upon the Nordenfelt guns or the Service cartridges. The blank cartridges were improvised; and as he thought they were not safe, he had given orders that no firing was to be done with them in future.