The awkward controversy growing out of the last rifle match
for the Palma Trophy has, we hope, been satisfactorily terminated. The conditions of the competition for the trophy provided that the weapon used should be of the national army pattern, and that if rifles of private manufacture were employed they should conform to the regulation pattern and bear the official marks. The trophy was won by the American team ; but it subsequently transpired that the barrel of the rifles used differed materially from that of the Krag- Jorgensen pattern used in the United States Army. General Spencer, President of the United States National Rifle Association, practically contended that as no protest had been lodged against these rifles the American team were entitled to use them. Colonel Crosse, secretary of the British Rifle Association, pointed out in his reply that if all competitors felt at liberty to infringe rules in the hope that no objection would be taken, the friendly feeling and mutual confidence essential to such competitions would be at an end. He further made it clear that the British Rifle Association had no desire to reverse the result of the match, their sole aim being to clear up the issues involved. The action of the United States National Rifle Association in unanimously resolving to return the trophy vindicates the reputation of their country for sportsmanlike behaviour, and will, it is to be hoped, terminate a controversy which, on their own admission, has been seriously injuring competitive military shooting throughout the world.
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