ARMAMENTS AND MEN.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 69, 6 March 1912, Page 5

ARMAMENTS AND MEN.

CANADIAN CADETS ON TOUR. [PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.] Ottawa, March 5. Official permission has been accorded to the Vancouver cadets to tour Australia. A representative Canadian corps of 60 boys will leave in July and be absent for five months. BRITISH FLYING CORPS. (Received 6, 8.5 a.m.) London, March 5. The air battalion is absorbed by the new flying corps, embracing soldiers, sailors, and civilians. It is proposed to train 180 officers yearly and to purchase 131 aeroplanes. THE BRITISH RIFLE. ITS ALLEGED DEFECTS. London, March 5. In the House of Commons, Mr 7 Seely, introducing the army estimates, unhesitatingly denied that there was a particle of truth in the Opposition charges of the inferiority of the Army rifle which was extraordinarily reliable, as proved in the South African war. The heavy guns of the horse field artillery and the machine guns were the best- in Europe both in the past and the present. MR. BONAR LAW NOT SATISFIED. Mr. Bonar Law repeated his assertion that the rifle in use is inferior in trajectory, and condemned the culpable delay in proving it as inexcusable. Lord Haldane, replying to the question of war last summer said our rille—if inferior in trajectory—had manv advantages over the German rifle? NEW ZEALANDERS PYSS EXAMINATIONS. (Received 6, 1.40 p.m.) London, March 5. The following passed their promotion examinations: —New Zealand Staff Captains : Browne, Patter and Duigan ; Lieutenants : Melville, Andrews, Powles, Morrison, Bosworth, Lampdcn, Burgess, Morton, King, Blair, Hume, and Skelley. Artillery Captains : Symon, and Hythe. Lieut.: Standish.