The Madsen Machine Gun

9 The Madsen [6 June 1918 Gun. 10 of them' individually what he thought of the gun, what other guns he had fired, and where, and I found their experience was something extraordinary. Their enthu- siastic support of the Madsen gun after they had fired it and after they had been drilled with it and knew how to handle it and assemble it, was remarkable. I saw a Danish officer, Lieutenant With Seidelin, who was over 'here with the gun, himself stand up and fire 1,320 rounds with the gun at his shoulder as if he were firing a rifle, and with bayonet fixed. He fired thirty magazines without stop- ping, each magazine holding forty-four rounds. It was to me an amazing perfor- mance. This officer stood up and he had in front of him the ordinary bank of earth to put the fired rifle bullets into, and he splayed it, and I am perfectly cer- tain that two battalions each armed with this gun could hold three divisions on a limited front. Nobody could pass it, be- cause it cannot jam, as I have already described. I then saw this Danish officer take the gun and thow it in the air and it landed somewhere on the hard ground, and then he went on firing. I then saw him after he had fired 1,300 rounds, the barrel being red hot, throw it into a ditch containing some two feet of water, slime, mud, and weeds. Of course, the water hissed. He left it there for a short time. When it was cool he took it out, and then fired it, covered with slime, mud, and weed, for. 220 rounds. He could have fired another 1,200 rounds. There is no other gun in the world which can do that. It is perfectly marvellous. To my mind, the answers given in the House of Commons were most unsatis- factory. The Minister of Munitions, Mr. Churchill, acknowledged that there were certain points of advantage in the gun. There is every point of advantage in this gun, every single point that, you can name To any man who knows anything about a rifle or a machine-gun there is no point of disadvantage in it, and I would rather that the right hon. gentleman had said that. Nobody in the War Office or in the Ad- mirality or among our experts can name one point of disadvantage in this machine- gun. It is the first machine-gun ever in- vented in regard to which you could not pick out six or seven disadvantages, which in some cases we never really got over. I appreciate the difficulties of the Go- vernment; I do not want to add to them. As I have told your Lordships, when we went to war we were criminally short of machine-guns. The value of the machine- gun has been found out more in this war than in any other because of trench war- fare. What happened? The Government did their best. They set to work, got the in- dustrial owners together, and said »You must turn out as many machine guns as ever you can.« They set all the industrials they could get hold of to make the Lewis gun under contract whereby these indu- strials would be paid for every gun they could make. No matter how many thous- ands were made up to the end of the war, all would be accepted. I think the Govern- ment were quite right to do that under these conditions, but now that this gun has come to the front, I see their diffi- culty. It is not, however, a difficulty that is insurmountable. If they were to go to these industrial owners and say they must have this gun, there are three things which they could do. They could turn over some part of the industrials to the making of the Madsen gun, because I must tell your Lordships that the same machinery will do for the Madsen as does for the Lewis. Of course you will have alterations. You i have to alter the fixtures, and clamps, I and gigs, and gauges. I acknowledge that the gauge question is a very difficult one. It is one of the most difficult scientific and mechanical questions we have to face. You want new gauges and new tools. Every one who knows anything about the lathe knows that the same lathes can put in many different tools; you have only to make the clamps a little different and set in the tools. The Government must not, interfere with contracts without seeing the people with whom they contracted. Our people are very reasonable, and if they see this gun is going to win the war, or to shorten the war, or is going’ to save our men’s lives and kill more Germans, I am sure they would come to the help of the Government. The Government could either take over some of the industrials who are making the Lewis gun, or could go to other industrials that have shafting and sti’aps and boilers and engines but do