THE RESERVE OF RIFLES.
[To TIM EDITOR or TH. "SPFCTWFOR....1
Sllt,—Important as it is that we should have a reserve of all munitions of war, it is of even greater moment that we should have the means to provide them in the future. It is a proved fact that the firearms industry of Great Britain is declining ; another, that weapons of war are being manu- factured abroad in ever increasing, quantities. In the whole British Empire there is now only one firm manufacturing revolvers. In " The Causes of Decay in a British Industry," which treats of the gun trade, the authors call attention to the dangers which will accrue when the firearms industry dis- appears here, and contend that fifty years hence the British Government factories will not be able to make the weapons the best armies will require, because there will be no centre of the industry existing in the country. The latest perfected mechanisms of modern weapons of precision were neither invented in England; nor are they produced here.—I am,
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