The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-09-19 00:00:00

THE PROTECTION OF POWDER
MAGAZINES.

The attention of the War Office authorities has
been directed, by the frequent scares at the Govern-
ment powder magazines, to the general question of
protecting such important stations from mischievous
and felonious intruders, and it is probable that some
uniform system will be adopted for the whole of
them. At the large magazine which is situated at
Purileet a party of the metropolitan police has
had charge for about twelve months, and the same
plan is adopted at Priddy's Hard, Bull Point, and
other places with more or less advantage. At
Woolwich the employment of military guards for
this duty is more easy than at other places, owing
to the proximity of the garrison, but even there
it is inconvenient on account of the distance
at which some of the magazines are situated
and the number of soldiers required to furnish a
guard. Every morning ambulance wagons and horses
are engaged in conveying the reliefs between the
barracks and the marshes—a stretch of about three
miles or more—and the obligation is often one which
tries severely the few troops which are left free from
other duties. Quite recently other circumstances
have happened to favour a change of practice in this
particular. The whole of the ground extending from
the Royal Arsenal to the farthest of the magazines is
now occupied by the Government, and near its
extremity a great depot, fancifully called "New
Berber," has been established for the storage of the
overplus railway and other material from the Soudan
campaign. The whole area is dotted with shanties
and lobbies, range huts and batteries, and the officers
conducting experiments have been annoyed by
frequent peculations and depredations, all of which
might have been avoided if the police who protect
the Royal Arsenal had had their jurisdiction ex-
tended to the quite unguarded ground beyond.
Policemen daily accustomed to the locality have been
found in similar cases better able to watch and
defend powder magazines or any other buildings
than military sentries, who are necessarily as a rule
strangers to the scene, and unaccustomed to the
special duty; while the difference in clothing, wea-
pons, and freedom of movement, not to mention age,
experience, and physique, are all on the side of the
policeman. It has been suggested that the addition
of a dozen policemen to the force at the Royal
Arsenal wonld render the magazines more secure
than they are at present, release the military for their
garrison duties, an,d probably put 9.n end to the
attacks and alarms wheii have been so frequent of
late years. The whole tract of ground would then
be divided into beats, and all the buildings would be
brought within touch of each other, and of the police
stations in the arsenal, from which communication by
telegraph is already established with the fire brigade
and every police centre throughout the metropolis.
There is ample material on hand for erecting tem-
porary quarters for the men in the marshes, which
are now well drained and healthy, and if a bit of
garden ground were railed in round the group of
Soudan huts, there would be no lack of steady con-
stables ready to volunteer for the duty.