§ COLONEL HUGHES-HALLETT (Rochester)asked the Surveyor General of Ordnance, Whether the Report of the Select Committee on Machine Guns, presented to Parliament in May 1881, which recommends the adoption of the Gardner rifle Machine Gun for use in Her Majesty's Service, in preference to either the Gatling or the Nordenfelt, has been acted upon; and whether, in spite of that recommendation, a large number of Nordenfelt 5-barrel rifle Machine Guns have been since then, and are now being, manufactured at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Lock?
§ THE SURVEYOR GENERAL (Mr. NORTHCOTE) (Exeter)The Report of this Committee and all other Reports on Machine Guns have been carefully considered by the War Office and Admiralty. The Admiralty have now, either completed or in process of manufacture, about twice as many rifle calibre Gardner guns as they have Nordenfelts. The War Department has a still larger proportion. All these Nordenfelt guns that have been supplied to the Admiralty have been supplied by special request of that Department. As regards the last part of the Question, a number of 5-barrelled Nordenfelt guns are in course of manufacture at the Royal Small Arms 578 Factory at Enfield to comply with naval demands with the least possible delay. I should, perhaps, add that a considerable number of Gardner guns have also been manufactured at Enfield.