The evening times., 1900-01-06
BOER AMMUNITION.
The Powder Factory at Pretoria and
Foreign ImpOrtstions.
(Frum the London NailD

! Most of the ammunition used by the
! Beers is Of German or French manufacture
A comparatively small quantity was made
in England, and an equally small propor-
tion was manufactured at the Transvaal
government works. near Pretoria.
a vast amount Of mystery and secrecy
surrounded the government powder fac
tory, as it Is called. and Oh one was al
lowed to visit it, or even to approach with
, in half a mile of the enclosed buildings
without an extra special permit.
The factory is entirely run by Germans,
and, curiously enough, the head thereof
was a Mr.. Kruger, who was always careful
10 assert that he was no relation whatso-
ever 10 the President. This seems quite
likely, as he was a decent sort of fellow.
The works were near Daspoort, about
four miles outside Of Pretoria, and in the
immediate neighborhood OF the cement
works, where so-called Transvaal Portland
cement was badly made. The powder fac
tory is most jealously guarded from iutrud-
ers, and even the Italians from the dyna-
mite factory not many miles away know
nothing of its internal economy. II IS
thought questionable by many whether any
actual manufacture takes qlace here, or
whether, as in the case Of the dynami
works c'Maatschapij voor Ontploffbaren
Stoffen' in the "Taal"1 the imported in
the spot, so as 10 appear to carry out the
requirements of the exclusion concession.
The ammunition is taken away at dead Of
night on mule wagons TO one or other of
the forts around Pretoria. and a portion is
often sent over TO the johannesburg fort,
but not by rail. as the jolting might be
dangerous in the case Of the carelessly put
together explosive. The mule wagons trav-
el forty-two miles in the night, and unload
-, fort al
in the early morning. An escort of artil-
lerS rides with the wagons and reports the
due delivery of the ammunition.
In the case of foreign imported ammuni
tion Lee Metford, Mauser, and heavy gun
shells, it comes by German, French. or
Dutch steamer TO Delagoa Bay, and is there
unshipped. stored for a longer or shorter
period in the wretched tin shanties on the
wharf which do duty for bonded ware
houses. and then. when all the extraordi-
nary Portuguese formalities are complete,
1t is forwarded by train, by way of komai
Poort to Pretoria where IL is taken, again
at the dead of night, from the railway sta
ton TO one of the forts or 10 the govern
ment magazine out on the veldt, beyond the
race course.
Now and again, as. indeed, happened just
before the present war broke out. the Por-
tuguese officials at Lourenco Marques
to themselves refuse to pass the ammu-
milton. and then there is an angry and |
heated exchange of letters in a queer mix |
ture of Portuguese, Dutch, and English. |
and after a long delay the goods may ar
rive at their destination, or they may Lot. |
In at least one instance an amusing con- |
tretemps occurred. A large lot of ammuni- !
tion, some twelve hundred boxes. went |
astray at the port, and could not be found |
T1a aprthn = cfrr hat thov,
had been landed. but the railway officials |
could not account for them in any way. |
At last after the lapse of many months. |
il turned out that by some unaccountable |
error the whole lot had been reshipped to |
Beira. and had got through to Buluwayo. |
and was comfortably reposing in the maga-
zines of the Chartered Company of Brit |
ish South Africa. The Beers Indignantly |
claimed their ammunition: Mr.. Rhodes Of |
ficials said: Very well, come and fetch
1t; but, as we happen to want some of this I
particular brand ourselves, you had better
let us pay you for it, and say no more On
the subject" This actually happened, but |
it was never found out whether the mis-
take occurred on purpose or by accident.
On the whole, it has been found that the
French ammunition is more reliable than
that made in Germany, and there has also
been less palm oil, less bribery and cor
ruption in its purchase, shipment, and de-
livery In the case of one particular lot
,f German cartridges it was reckoned that
he original cost was Quadrupled by the
lime they reached Pretoria, owing to the
number of hands through which they
passed, and the number Of officials who had
% be ''insulted'' before they were passed
Not only that, but when these cartridges
we're unpacked and distributed among the
armers, it was found that they were faulty
md dangerous, so that the whole transac-
ion was eminently unsatisfactory from
every point of view. These were Mauser |
cartridges.
The quantity of ammunition stored in the
is absolutely colossal, and would
suffice for ten years war, even at the
present rate Of usage.