§ MAJOR RASCHI beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty, (1) whether the five new battleships are to be armed with ten-inch breech-loading guns; and (2) whether a ten-inch shell will penetrate sixteen-inch Harveyed plates, such as were recently experimented on at Shoe-buryness, and with which the recently-launched Japanese battleship is protected?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. W. E. MACARTNEY,S.) Antrim,The reply to the first paragraph is in the negative. As regards the second paragraph, the trials in question were conducted at the request of the Government of a friendly Power, and were of a private nature. It is not, therefore, considered desirable to give particulars respecting them.