§ COLONEL SANDYS (Lancashire, Bootle)On behalf of my right honourable Friend the Member for the Ormskirk Division of Liverpool, I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that the Lancashire Artillery, now encamped at Altcar, have for drill and practice only a battery of old 32-pounder converted muzzle-loading guns of 1868 and 1871 patterns, and four 40-pounder breech-loading guns of an obsolete pattern, all mounted on obsolete carriages, worked on dilapidated wooden platforms; whether it is intended to provide more modern weapons at the Altcar drill battery, or will the regiment in future be sent for its annual training to the fort at Spithead, to which, under the mobilisation arrangements, it is attached; and if he is aware that on the undrained and swampy site of the camp at Altcar, where 1,500 men are now under canvas, no wood flooring is allowed in the men's tents in the case of the Regular Army, and that deaths from pneumonia have resulted during the recent inclement weather?
THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (Mr. ST. JOHN BRODRICK;) Surrey, GuildfordThe breech-loading guns at Altcar are not regarded as obsolete, and the carriages are being replaced by a recent pattern as quickly as possible. The traversing slides are up to date, and a report will be called for as to the alleged dilapidation of the platforms. It is proposed to issue to Altcar for drill purposes an 11-inch rifled muzzle-loading gun. A Militia artillery corps is only sent to its mobilisation station once in three years. The question of providing wooden floors for mess tents is under consideration, but I have no information as to the deaths to which my right honourable Friend refers.