§ SIR J. FERGUSSON () Manchester, N. E.I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, whether the Committee at Aldershot, who reported unfavourably of the shooting director invented by Mr. T. A. Russell, had tested it by any firing; whether he is aware that the officer commanding the Regimental District at Hounslow in 1890, now commanding a division in South Africa, had tested it exhaustively by unofficial trials, and had reported that it nearly doubled the accuracy of the rifle practice; and whether those results were known to the Com-mander-in-Chief and the Adjutant-General.
§ *MR. WYNDHAMYes, Sir. The Committee did test it by firing at different ranges and at different sorts of targets, and reported that it was not suitable for active service. The trials carried out by the officer commanding the Regimental District at Hounslow were on a small scale, and were prior to the exhaustive trials at Aldershot. The results were known to the Commander-in-Chief and to the Adjutant-General.