What happened to P14 rifles made in US for Britain?

[Frederick303]

Major Reynolds of the 1960 Enfield book wrote that a large number of the cord worn and damaged rifles from home guard/RAF anti-aircraft/ training commands use were dumped at sea. This was in an article he published in the American rifleman circa late 1960s. He does not give a figure but for some reason the figure 300~400,000 dumped at sea seemed to be circulation when I was a young chap first interested in to topic, in the early 1980s. The figure was supposed to be about 1/2 of the rifles left in stock after all arms sent overseas prior to 1958. Collectors I spoke to at the time (circa 1981 to 1982) were fairly sure the figures dumped were much larger, as fairly few P14 rifles came over tot he US of A in the 1958 to 1968 time period, and some of them came out of the Spanish 1959~1960 sale. Certainly P14 rifles are kind of rare, you see something like 4 SMLE rifles for every P14 rifle.

The only confirmation I have of dumping seem of this was an comment in the book deadly business, which states that after the first larger order for ~900,000 Enfields, Sam Cummings got a call from the MOD saying they had 300,000 obsolete Enfields readied for dumping at sea, which had already had the wooden cases drilled which he could have on the same terms as the previous 900,000 (of which Interams got between 60 and 75 percent, the other rifles being bought by Parker Hale).

Now I have no idea if these Enfield were all P14 rifles, but the evidence they were dumping them at seas is hard to argue against.

As far as who got them prior to 1958 the following armies were known to have them:

Greece : small numbers, some imported into US of A in late 1980s by century arms.
Portugal: small numbers, used in GOA by customs police, lost to India in 1961
Spain: small numbers supplied by Russia during civil war, almost all in very poor condition. What remained sold to Interarms in 1959~1960.
Estonia ~40,000, supplied by UK in 1919/1921, lost to Russian in 1940, most likely lost in the 1941 east front disaster.
Lithuania same as above, figures I forget
Ukraine: supplied to whites in 1920 time frame, lost to Russia, small numbers exported to Spain in 1936
Singapore: Some were on hand in Feb 1942, as at the battle box museum there is rusted up example of one that was found on the site. At that time the P14 was the issue rifle to anti-aircraft artillery.

India: supposed to have been supplied 100,000 directly from Remington in 1917. Based on the rifles that have come out of India, they were likely from the Baldwin works in Chester, not out of Ilion (ERA marked). Some sold to Springfield sporters in the late 1980/1990s in India police sales.
Pakistan: some of the India rifles ended up in Pakistan post 1947. Some imported by Century arms in the early 1990s
Afghanistan: some of the Paki rifles ended up there and have been seized in the war on terror

South Africa: Some were on issue for home defense in WWII. South Africans even made a bayonet for it. no idea what happened to them.