§ SIR EDGAR VINCENT (Exeter)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether permission to private firms to manufacture on payment of royalty the new service rifle has been refused; and whether he is aware that such refusal has resulted in the transfer of important orders from England to Germany.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Arnold-Forster.) Permission has not been granted to private manufacturers to use for sale the Government patents embodied in the new service rifle. The reply to the second part of the Question is in the negative.