SURPLUS AMMUNITION.

Otaki Mail, 3 January 1923, Page 2

SURPLUS AMMUNITION.

CONVERTED FOR FEACE. GIGANTIC UNDERTAKING. ', WORK or r^|^MjMjjUH,lSllMAK. -c! e 1. 1 1-no W-y-V .c FKw.Y?; - 1 a ' J I ant, Picoadily, “ Behind this function lies a romance I of organisation and daring, says a Eon--1 don paper. Mr F. N. Pickett is only j 3(5 years old. He had no partners, oxeept a six-year-old sou, to share responI Ability for his enterprise in buying, sit the cost of £2,030,000, ten of the largest ammunition depots which belonged to the English, French and Belgian Governments in France, ilis speculation is 2 the more astonishing when it is realised I that others had been unsuccessful in I making a commercial success of break ‘ing down tho 500,000 ton 3 of high explosives, gas shells, and small arms ammunition. Mr Pickett, however, undaunted, got rapidly to work. In a short time he had 10,000 workers, including 800 women —Arabs, Moroccans, French, English, Algerians, Poles, and even Abyssinian*. They were all unskilled labourers with English foremen iu charge. ’Ten men were killed and 30 injured—- | not a large total for operations that iaj voived the handling of 40 million shells, j thousands of tons of gas, and an almost J incalculable number of small arms am--1 munition. “It was air -exhilirating 1 job,” said Mr Pickett. “The utmost j precaution* had to bo taken. Even j then, however, there was always a ! chance of explosion. Steel, brass, cop- '■ per and lead, which we sold chiefly to | South Wales, were the chief metals we i salved. Ammonium nitrate, valuable ! for manure, and T.N.T. for blasting I charges were secured from the explosives. Some of the English shells dated I back to 1884. Others were the Ja*t ! word in 4.5 anti-aircraft shells, to be ! used against machines flying 25,000 ft, | «!• • ‘ Out greatest difficulty was with the 1 gas. One of my assistants suffered from severe boils all over his body a* a result of work at the dump. We ren- ' dered the shells innocuous by removing the fuses and squirting in boiling wa- ! ter. This reduced the high explosive to a sealing-wax consistcan^mrlwashed - i. * Russian authority on W’ ,a * >T> charge. The attitude the workmen towards the danger they w ould arose by >;ar-i> handling of the shells was’ ‘ French —-nr!; remonstrated with. men-ly repflHl "Other nationalise- , JHHH| ”'.taii*tic. One Portngme-, rn-rtial enough to light hithrow the match on to cordite. Even^^^ this result produced ftiUc effect. Explosives, ” Mr Picket i concluded, ire no more dangerous than cigarettes —if only you know how io handle hem.” Mr Pickett's work Iras saved the- taxever over £2,ooo,ooo—for had he not ought the explosives they would have een throws in to the «*,*