§ MR. HEDDERWICKI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether in 1896 trials of the 37 mm. automatic gun, which has been used in the present campaign by the Boers, were made at Shoeburyness; whether a year ago trials of modern quick-firing field guns, in competition with the service 15-pounder, were carried out at Okehampton; whether these trials took place under the supervision of experts appointed by the War Office; whether reports of the results of these trials were duly furnished to the War Office; and whether the Government will lay copies of the reports of these trials upon the Table of the House.
§ * MR. WYNDHAMThe trials alluded to took place, though not at the dates named; in the trial of the quick-firing guns mentioned in paragraph 2, the service 12-pounder, not 15-pounder, was used. The trials were duly conducted under 278 proper superintendence, and reports furnished to the War Office, but they are confidential, and their publication would not be in the public interest.