IMPRESSMENT OF 3O3 RIFLES

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23319, 3 May 1941, Page 8

IMPRESSMENT OF 303 RIFLES

Latitude In Transfer To Home Guard

Owners of ~303 rifles deSiring to place the rifles in the hands of specified members of the Home Guard will apparently be allowed some latitude under the Government’s impressment order. : • Replying to an inquiry by ’The;Press” yesterday, Major D. S. Murchison, Area 'Commander of the Home 'Guard,, said that if the owner of the rifle was bn active member of the Home Guard (or now became an active member) he could pass over his rifle tothe Home Guard, which would in gteneral, though under no obligation, be prepared to issue the rifle bn charge back to the Same man. The guard would have legal ownership of the rifle for the duration of the war, but the man train with it and be responsible for seeing that it Wi&jsn ‘parade. ’ u ■ Similarly, the wish of a man to .pass his rifle over to a specified member of the Home Guard Would 1 receive every consideration,, Major, Murchison said,; Hejould glve the rifle .and ragwfratipo*papar

who could pass the rifle in to the Home Guard and have it issued to him Officially. , The rifles he said, be handed in to the police, but unit commanders of the guard in most cases could arrange for the attendance of police ; at certain parades to issue receipts for private-rifles^ Incidentally, it should be again , emphasised, he said, that owners of unregistered rifles cou}d . .over to the Hpme Guard without fear of prosecution for having hftdtht un- :