Mr. DUNDAS WHITEasked the President or the Board of Trade what quantities of small arms of various kinds have been made in Scotland during recent years; and what proportions of these have been proved and marked as proved at the public proof houses in London and Birmingham, respectively?
Mr. BUXTONAccording to the final Report of the First Census of Production, only 500 sporting guns, carbines, and rifles were manufactured in Scotland in 1907 out of a total of 54,200 manufactured in the United Kingdom. There were no military rifles and carbines manufactured in Scotland in that year. I am informed by the London proof house that in the year in question 138 weapons from Scotland were definitively proved in London. Since then the number has fallen off, and in 1912 only amounted to seventy-nine. At the Birmingham proof house the receipt of a gun direct from Scotland for proof is reported to be a rare occurrence, and no separate record is kept of such receipt. Barrels and actions which have been proved both provisionally and definitively in either London or Birmingham are frequently forwarded to Scottish gunmakers, and made up into guns in Scotland, but there are no figures available with regard to the number of barrels used in Scottish guns which have been so proved prior to final manufacture.