SPECIAL RESERVE (RIFLES). (Hansard, 6 August 1913)

§ 22. Mr. HUNT
asked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that during the training this year of one Special Reserve battalion some of the officers and men were prevented from becoming marksmen by the jamming of their rifles during rapid firing; whether, seeing that this is unfair to those whom it affects and might be disastrous in war, he will say what steps he proposes to take to provide rifles which do not jam; and will he say whether rifles jam in the same way in other Special Reserve regiments?

§ Colonel SEELY
No complaint of the matter in question has been received from any Special Reserve battalion. If the hon. Gentleman will furnish me with some detailed information on the subject I will have inquiry made.

MARQUESS of TULLIBARDINE
May I ask whether the rifle which the Special Reserve use is the converted rifle which the right hon. Gentleman described as being as good as any in the world, or is it the old rifle which he described as being better than the converted one, or is it the new rifle which he described as being the best in the world, and in which the Ammunition explodes in the chamber?

§ Colonel SEELY
I cannot accept the last statement as being accurate, and, indeed, I think I may say it is not an accurate statement of the facts, but with regard to the series of questions which the Noble Lord puts, perhaps he would put them down.

MARQUESS of TULLIBARDINE
May I ask if he means the new rifle is not now the best in the world, or that the ammunition does not often explode?

§ Colonel SEELY
Those are all matters of opinion upon which I differ from the Noble Lord, and perhaps he would put them down.

§ Mr. HUNT
May I ask whether I may naturally assume, if I give the regiment that neither the colonel nor anybody else will get into trouble about it?

§ Colonel SEELY
It is difficult for me to say what the hon. Gentleman would naturally assume, but the specific point that I think the hon. Gentleman means to put to me as to whether anybody will get into trouble, because it is given, I will say at once, certainly not.