HC Deb 27 June 1899 vol 73 cc760-1
MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India how soon he will be able to lay papers upon the Table of the House giving the grounds on which the Dum-Dum bullet used in recent Indian campaigns was adopted, particulars of experiments on animals carried out before it was decided to issue the bullet to troops, the surgical reports as to effect of bullet on the human body, particulars of experiments now being conducted with the new bullet which is to be substituted for the Dum-Dum, and Professor Brims' experiments with the Tübingen bullet; and whether he will procure specimens of the original Dum-Dum, Tübingen bullet, and the bullet which it is proposed to substitute for the Dum-Dum in India, and have them placed in the tea-room for the inspection of Member

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord G. HAMILTON,) Middlesex, Ealing

In reply to the first part of the question, the papers which I undertook to give have been some days in print and will shortly be circulated, but they relate only to experiments with the Dum-Dum bullet. An inspection of ballets such as is suggested would be quite useless, as no one by looking at a bullet before it is fired can estimate the injury it may inflict when fired.

MR. DILLON

Will the noble Lord be good enough to consider this point: that it has been denied that the bullet experimented upon was the Dum-Dum? I think if it were placed for inspection in the tearoom Members would be able to say whether it was the same bullet or not as that used in India.

LORD G. HAMILTON

I very much doubt whether the hon. Gentleman could. Certainly anyone with a knife could convert the ordinary bullet into a Dum-Dum bullet in a very few seconds.