§ LORD TRUROsaid, he desired to point out a singular discrepancy between the statement made by the noble Viscount the Under Secretary of State for War the other evening, and that of General Wray in a letter to The Times, in reference to the number of range-finders supplied to the Army. The statement of the noble Viscount at the time was highly satisfactory; but the letter of General Wray made a statement which it was extremely difficult to reconcile with the former—for he said that the number of range-finders actually served out was much smaller than the noble Viscount had represented it to be; in fact, that the number of range-finders served out was only 21. He was sure the noble Viscount would agree with him that it was desirable to maintain the healthy tone of Parliamentary interrogatory and Ministerial reply, and that the Public Service was not likely to benefit by the substitution for the range-finder of the Ministerial long-bow.
§ VISCOUNT BURYdesired to know what the noble Lord meant by the expression "Ministerial long-bow?" If he meant to imply that he (Viscount Bury) had deceived the House on a previous occasion, the words were scarcely Parliamentary.
§ LORD TRUROsaid, he meant to convey that the number of range-finders which he understood the noble Viscount to say had been supplied to the Service was much larger than was now stated to be actually the case.
§ VISCOUNT BURYsaid, he had only to re-iterate the statement he made the other night; but not having the necessary Papers in hand, he was under some disadvantage in replying to the charge which the noble Lord had brought against him. Perhaps, however, he would be able to quote figures with sufficient accuracy from memory. General Wray, on whose letter to The Times the noble Lord relied, was, no doubt, a gentleman of high acqiurements and high professional standing; but he was somewhat of an enthusiast. He was formerly Chairman of the Committee on Range-finders, and, like many persons who took up a crotchet, he was extremely enamoured of all the recommendations made by his Committee. One of these recommendations was in favour of the adoption of range-finders in the Army, and this recommendation had been carried out; but some details recommended by the Committee had not commended themselves to the judgment of those responsible for the administration of the Service, and had consequently been rejected. Hence General Wray had thought it right to devote a portion of his time and talents to writing letters to the newspapers on the shortcomings of the War Department, and the one to which the noble Lord had referred was a fair specimen of its class. He (Viscount Bury) stated the other night that range-finders had been supplied in considerable numbers to Her Majesty's troops that each of the regiments in South Africa was in possession of one, and that they had been served out in the proportion of one to each battery to the Artillery. General Wray maintained that only 21 sets of range-finders had been ordered in all. Now, the fact was that 179 sets had been ordered, and there would have been 279 ordered had not Captain Watkin desired 1218 100 of them to be kept back in order that he might introduce into them some slight improvements which he had invented, range-finders had been ordered in considerable numbers, and 179 had been either ordered or served out to the troops. General Wray had evidently omitted from his calculations the Artillery range-finders, and considered only those served out to the Infantry. He could only suppose that that was the way in which the figures had been arrived at.