That's right splicenut. That's because these slings, left over from the 1st war after languishing in Ordnance stores at Didcot were resurrected for use with and issued for sniper rifles. Mind you, they weren'y as popular as webbing slings because once they were damp, they got slippery. The webbing rifle sling was too short to use in the leather sling way. But salvation was to come in the form of the longer Bren gun webbing sling. And you'll see this on some of the other earlier pictures