§ MR. HANBURY (Preston)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been called to a Memorandum, stated to have been addressed to the Director of Artillery on 20th August, 1888, and published by request in The Times of 24th August last; whether it was so published at the request of the War Office; whether, if so, the War Office will publish the reply made to it by the Director of Artillery; whether it was signed by all the members of the Committee when it was first brought to the knowledge of the Secretary of State for War; whether the Regulations suggested in paragraph 13 were afterwards determined upon; and, if so, were they, or the purport of them, disclosed to the private inventors submitting their explosives for examination, and will he lay them upon the Table; and what was the date of the half-yearly Report in which the Memorandum is said to have been included?
§ *MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANYes, Sir; my attention has been called to the Memorandum published in The Times of August 24 last. This Memorandum was not published at the request 1207 of the War Office. Sir F. Abel wrote to me asking whether I had any objection to his sending it to the Press, and I replied that I had none. No official reply has been recorded. The Memorandum was signed, as is customary, by Sir F. Abel, as President, Explosives Committee, and not by the members of that Committee. With regard to paragraph 13, new Regulations have not yet been finally determined on, although the matter has been under the consideration of various Departments of the Government for some time. The Memorandum was included in the half-yearly Report dated December 31, 1888.
§ MR. HANBURYDO I understand that no official or semi-official reply was given by the Director of Artillery to whom the communication was made?
§ *MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANNo official written reply appears to have been made. What happened was this. The Memorandum was received; a great many Minutes were written upon it, and questions were started upon those Minutes which appear to have diverted the attention of the officials of the Department from the Memorandum itself. I can trace no official reply.
§ MR. HANBURYIs it a fact that no official sanction was given to the view enunciated in the Memorandum?
§ *MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANNo official reply having been sent, no written or official approval or disapproval of the Memorandum was given. What may have been communicated verbally I cannot, of course, say.