The Madsen Machine Gun

27 The Madseu [LORDS] Gun. 28 Germans have got it by thousands in the field. - The Earl of ALBEMARLE: My Lords; I should like to mention one matter which was not referred to by my noble and gal- lant friend. Yesterday I saw a demonstra- tion of this gun with Cavalry, and' the demonstration ended with a competition between the Hotchkiss gun and the Mad- sen gun mounted on Cavalry horses. At a given signal the guns commenced to be brought into action. From the time the signal was given I noticed that the Mad- sen gun got into action in fifteen seconds. The Hotchkiss gun and its personnel and equipment were not dismounted and had not begun to fire—I think I am quite correct in saying—until the Madsen gun had fired something like 100 rounds. I think it was more, but I am certain that it was 100 rounds before the Hotchkiss gun commenced to fire. This proves the celerity with which this gun can be brought into action. Lord BERESFORD: My Lords, I must say I agree with my noble friend Lord Salisbury that when Lord Elphinstone began his speech I thought we were going to have the old stereotyped form of Go- vernment reply which is so heartbreaking to those who want reforms. At the end of his speech, however, he was certainly more encouraging. I do not want to divide the House, and if my noble friend Lord Elphinstone will assure me that the authorities who dictate as to whether this gun is to be issued to the Army or not will go and see a trial—such trials as I have seen—and if he will assure me that a gun of the latest pattern will be sent to Headquarters in France to get a real opinion, then I will not divide the House. Otherwise I shall do so. Those are two questions to which I want a definite reply. I also want an answer to the point raised by Lord Heneage, as to what is going to happen to us if the enemy get this new gun, because I am informed that they are after it. They have got the old pattern. Therefore I say let us get the gun somehow or other, even if we are not going to use it. There are one or two other questions. The noble Lord said there had been no adverse criticism of the Le- The Earl of Albemarle. wis gun. I think he is making a mistake. There have been many adverse criticisms on its continual jamming, arid letters have been written by men who worked the gun pointing out certain improvements which they think should be made to stop the jamming which is so fatal. Lord Penrhyn is quite right when he says that the Ger- mans know about the jamming and heating, and so time their attacks. Then Lord Stair pointed out about the training. Lord Elphinstone said that training would be difficult, but with this gun training would be nothing. Training in taking to pieces and assembling’ a Lewis gun takes days and days, but men can learn this gun in a few ho,urs/ They can learn to take to pieces and assemble the Madsen gun in a few hours. Then my noble friend spoke about a year—»it may be a year.« Suppose it does take a year! But it will not take any- thing like a year if the thing is fairly tackled and certain industrials are used at once. Does he suppose the war is going to be over in a year? How do we know when the war is going to be over? This war cannot be over until the American nation comes in effective force with 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 men in the trenches, and they cannot be there until October of next year. That is my opinion. I hope I am wrong. At any rate, we do not know when the war is going to be over, and we must give our men the best weapon as soon as ever we can in ordei’ to end the war. I agree with the military authorities that to increase the types of weapon is a very serious thing, but it is not so serious when they all use the same ammunition. The difficulty about increasing types of weapons in my early days was that it always meant new ammunition, and that is a most difficult question. Of course nobody in this House, least of all an old Service man, wants to dictate to the mi- litary authorities. The military authorities must be the judges. They must be the people who decide. All I ask is that the military authorities should go and see the gun tried. Not one of them has seen it tried. As I said, they have seen it’in a room. That is like seeing the model of a ship in a room. If you want to know any- thing about the ship you must go to the