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( 34 ) I think you will agree I am justified in saying that the position of Italy as regards Big Guns is no more than on a par with our own.

Now I think, the foregoing statements should satisfy you we are not lagging behind other nations, but are well to the front, while, as I have said, with regard to wire-gun experiments, I believe we have done, and are doing, more than has been attempted by any other nation.

You may say, this is all very well, you have shown us that you make guns equal in power to those of other nations, but we are told that your guns when made, are worse than those of other nations, that they fail, and that those of other nations do not fail.

Well, let us see what the extent of our failure is. This we do know; what the failure of foreign nations may be, we do not know with certainty, as they (as far as possible) keep their failures to themselves.

I presume you will be satisfied, if, under the title of "Big Guns," we confine our attention to breech-loading guns of 6 inches bore—a size of about one-third of the weight of the 8-inch gun in the Inventions Exhibition—and those exceeding 6-inch bore, and if we go back say some six years.

We have in the service, or are making up to this time, in all some three hundred or four hundred 6-inch guns. These have been made in successive lots, and on each occasion such improvements have been introduced as experience has dictated, so that there are as many as five Marks, or stages of development, of these 6-inch guns.

From those already in the service, thousands of rounds have been fired, including the proof rounds and a considerable proportion of other rounds with full charges. As regards numbers of rounds per gun, I may cite cases of those guns which are used for drill and practice, where 1400 rounds have been fired.

With the exception of those of one of the Marks, these guns were not hooped in front of the trunnions. You may say, why were they not? The answer is, that having regard to the