ENCLOSURE C0621 17045
COPY.
From Colonel R. B. Mainwaring.
Acting Commandant,
Hong Kong Volunteer Corps.
Sir,
To- Dy. A.A. General 2 and C. 8. Officer.
China.
Hong Kong,
17th April 1899.
It will be remembered that the Defence Committee strongly advised that there should not be two kinds of small arm armaments and ammunition in the Colony and recommended that the 0.45 Maxims of the Hong Kong Volunteer Corps should be exchanged for .303 guns in order that, as the calibre of the 200 new Carbines with which the Corps is about to be armed, and which are on their way out, is .303, the same ammunition would serve both the Machine Guns and the Carbines - thus averting any chance of a disaster by the probable mixing up of the two kinds of ammunition.
General Black, lately Commanding the Troops in China, very strongly recommended the exchange of the guns.
It is possible that the expense of purchasing 12 new Maxim guns might be considered too great, even with the price of the 12 old ones set off. I have therefore ascertained from the Chief Ordnance Officer, China, that the cost of converting the 0.45 Maxims to .303 would not be more than £50 a gun. When converted, the gun would be practically a new one of the desired calibre.