Germany’s War Fund.

Manawatu Herald, 29 March 1902, Page 2

Germany’s War Fund.

In the Julius Tower of Spandau. Germany, lies the great sum of 120,000,000 marks, set aside by an act of November, 1871, from the French indemnity, for use, should the necessity arise, for the sudden mobilisation of German troops. This fund is examined once a year. At this ceremony a member of the Reichstag committee on the national debt is usually present, and in the “New Yorker Revue ” for December 8, Hermann Pachnicke describes his visit to the tower in this capacity in the month of October last. Three iron gates, the second being latticed, letting in light for the examination, open before the deputation into the interior of the tower,' where the wooden chests, not handsome by any means, but filled with a rich store, are piled high above and beside one another. Fifteen piles of thirty ohuti wobjMft en the low«

floor, and twenty piles of thirty andw six piles of fifteen each on the upper* l floor, reached by a winding wooden staircase. These chests, of which there are twelve hundred, are feet long and foot wide, and weigh about 87 pounds each. Each chest contains 100,000 marks in ten and twenty mark pieces, divided evenly among ten linen bags. The chests are first all counted, and the seals examined. The member of the National Debt Commission then marks certain ones which are to be weighed and emptied, and an tinder-officer and two workmen bring these marked cases and set them on a decimal scale. Their actual weight is found to tally with the required weight as marked on the outside of the chest; or if there be a difference, it consists simply of a few grammes and has been caused by the variation inr the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. One chest is then taken, the sheet-iron covering loosened with a chisel, the long, thick nails extracted, and the cover lifted. The bulky linen bags are taken out and weighed a second time on special mint scales. Still no discrepancy is discovered. This proof, however, is not sufficient. A single bag is selected at random, the seal is broken, and its contents poured out upon the scale, where the golden discs lie with an alluring glitter, seeming to bid them mockingly to “ lay to,” while the examiners, on their part, maim jesting calculations as to how far this single ten thousand would go toward its destined purpose. The weight being found to be correct to the ounce, the gold pieces are poured back into the sack, and the chest is nailed up again and carried back to the identical spot from which it was taken. A record is duly made of the whole proceed-. ing, ending up, usually, with the comforting assurance that “all is well.”

The tallow candles which supplemented the light let in by the latticed iron gate ate now extinguished, and the inventory is at an end. But wait! For the sake of further assurance, a little trip must be made into the cellar adjoining, £or it may be there have been attempts to undermine the tower. ’Tis true, the walla are more than two metres in thickness ; still, wicked pars ms may be suspected of anything. So the cellar is traversed, and the wall next the tower carefully examined, to see that it has not been bored through or disturbed, after which the committee, filled with the consciousness of having performed its duty to .the last tittle, returns to the open air out on the parade-ground. A similar examination of the . wall of the cellar is made daily by an officer of the tower, and once a year, usually in spring, come two officers from Berlin, this time, however accompanied by a Reichstag member, ; to assure themselves that the wall has not been tampered with. Besides, ail this, a military guard, — relieved, every two hours; in winter, every hour, —watches by day and night over the place where this national treasure lies. That this sum would not be very adequate for the purpose for which it is designed is undoubtedly true, as' anything like an extensive mobilisation of troops would exhaust it in a few days. This may be gathered from the fact that the expenses of Prussia alone, in 1870, amounted to 6,000,000 marks daily; and since that time the cost of mobilisation has been considerably increased, on • account of Germany’s army and navy.