§ MR. HANBURY (Preston)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War how many magazine rifles and how many carbines of the description of those now being manufactured for the use of the Army were sent to Hythe for trial and report; whether those so sent were sent after the last modifications had been made; and whether the Hythe Report was adverse to the new rifle?
§ * MR. E. STANHOPEColonel Tongue, the Commandant of the School of Musketry at Hythe, was himself a member of the Small Arms Committee which chose the new magazine rifle. No rifles were sent for further trial at Hythe, but they were tried under service conditions at home and abroad, and the result has been a thorough approval of the new weapon. Any small defects then pointed out were remedied in the final pattern adopted. Some experimental carbines for cavalry have been sent to Hythe for trial; and some of the officers of the staff, not including the commandant, have offered adverse criticisms upon some of the details.