Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1900-02-08
BOER AMMUNITION.
It Would Last a Zen Years War
Most of 1t Is Imported.

beers is of German or French manu-
facture. A con paratively small guam
,itv was made in England, and an
equally small proportion was manu-
featured at the Transvaal government
works, near Pretoria. A vast amount
of mystery and secrecy surrounded the
government powder factory, as 1t was
called, and no one was allowed to Wis
it it, or even to approach within half Il
mile of the inclosed buildings without
an extra special permit. The factory
was entirely run by Germans, and, Gu
riously enough, the head thereon was
Mr.. Kruger, who was always careful
70 assert that he was no relation what
soeyer to the president. The works
were near Daspoort, about four miles
outside Of Pretoria, and in the lmme-
diate neighborhood OF the cement
works, where SO-called lfansNaal
Portland cement was badly made,
The powder factory is most jealousy
guarded from intruders, and even the
Italians from the dynamite factory for
many miles away know nothing OF It's
internal economy. 1t is thought Qles-
tionable by many whether any actual
manufacture takes place here, or
whether, as in the case of the uyna
mite works "Maatschapij voor On
tnloffbaren Stoffen" in the "raalD, the
imported ingredients are Just put IN
cartridges on the spot, so as to appear
to carry out the requirements or the
exclusive concession.
The ammunition is taken away at
dead of night on mule wagons to enc
or other of the forts around Pretoria,
and portion is often sent over to Jo-
Eannesburg fort, but not by rail-, as the
ioliting might be dangerous in the
case of the carelessly put together eH-
plosiye. The mule kagons travel the
40 miles in the night, and unload at
the johannesburg fort on Hospital hill,
in the early morning. An escort OF
artillery rides with the wagons and re-
ports the due delivery of the ammuni-
ton.
In the case of foreign imported am
munition, Lee Metford. Mauser and
heavy gun shells, it comes by German,
French, or Dutch steamer to Delogoa
bay, and is there unshipped, stored
for longer or shorter period in the
wretched tin shanties on the wharf
which do duty for bonded warehouses,
and then. when all the extraordinary
Portuguese formalities are complete II
is forwarded by train, by way OF no
matt Poort. to Pretoria, where 1t is
taken, again at the dead OF night, from
the railway station to one OF the ports
or to the government magazine out on
the yeldt, beyond the race course.
Now and again, as, indeed, happened
lust before the present war broke out
the Portuguese officials at: Lorenza
Marques CDelagoa bay), for some rea-
sons best known to themselves, refuse
to pass the ammunition, and then
there is an angry and heated exchange
Of letters in a queer mixture of Por-
tuguese. Dutch. and English, and after
a long delay the goods may arrive at
their destination, or they may not,
In at least one instance an amusing
contrp-temps occurred. A large lot of
ammunition, some 1900 boxes, went
astray at the port and could not be
.ound. The port authorities were sure
that they had been lanucd, but the
railway officials could not account for
them in any way At last, after the
lapse of many months, it turned out
that by some unaccountable error the
IA L.J hinpa5 n pairp
and had got through to Buluwayt and
was comfortably repOsing in the mag
azines in the chartered company Of
British South Africa The beers in
dignantly claimed their ammunition
Mr.. Rhodes officials said. Very well,
come and fetch It: but as we happen
to want some Of this particular brand
ourselves. you had better let rs pay
YOU for II and say no more on the
subject" This actually happened, but
II was never found out whether the
mistake occurred on purpose or by
accident
On the whole it has been found that
me French ammunition is more reli
able than that made in Germany, and
there has also been less palm oil, less
bribery and corruption in its purchase,
shipment and delivery In the case Of
one particular lot Of German car
tridges 1t was found that the orig
inal cost was quadrupled by the time
they reached Pretoria. owing to the
number Of hands through which they
passed, Not only that but when these
cartridges were examined and distrib-
uted among the farmers It was found
that rhev were faulty and dangerous.
80 that the whole transaction was en-
inently unsatisfactory from every
roint Of view. These were Mauser
cartridges
The quantity of ammunition stored |
in the Transvaal + absolutely colossal