§ CAPTAIN NORTONI beg to ask the Secretary of State for War if he can state the number of rifles for which orders were placed during last year with private firms and with Government factories respectively, and the cost of the rifle supplied by the contracting firms as compared with the cost of the rifle produced in the Government factories; and whether the amount of work now being done at the Enfield Government Factory is less than that which was done prior to the enlargement of the factory.
§ *MR. BROMLEY-DAVENPORTThe orders placed for the new pattern rifle since its acceptance are—in the Ordnance Factories for 1903–4, 67,000 new and 50,000 converted, and for 1904–5, 50,000 new and 4,000 converted; with the trade 105,000 new for the two years 1903–05. No conversions are allocated to the trade. The contract price of the new rifle supplied by the trade is £4 10s. The estimated cost of the new rifle supplied by the Ordnance Factories is £3 10s. The work that will be done in the Enfield Factory this year will be more than the average of work done for some years prior to the war.