12 AUGUST 1949, Page 15

SIR,—" Long Lee-Enfield" for "Long Enfield" was a stupid slip

on my part, and I am grateful to Mr. Stanley Turner for pointing it out. (The two weapons are as different as scarlet and khaki !) But Mr. Porter's date for the introduction of the Lee-41etford, "some years before 1897," I beg leave to dispute, on the authority of the National Rifle Association's reports. These state that the." .303 Magazine" rifle replaced the Martini- Henry both in the Ashburton and in the Queen's (now King's) Prize in 1897.—Yours faithfully, DAVID 37 Hut-lit:ghat,' Court, S.W.6.

W. JAMES.