BREAKING DOWN

Taihape Daily Times, 14 January 1919, Page 5

BREAKING DOWN

WHERE WAR IS MADE TO PAY

"What beats meV" said a. soldier to mo the other day, "is what we shall do with the ammunition no-w we’ve got no one to fire it at, writes W. ,L. George in the ‘ ‘ Daily Mail. ’ ’

He went on to describe the shell dumps, hundred’s of yards long and evidently regarded peace with some disfavour. The shells and .bombs must obviously bo disposed of; for one thing, there is no place to store millions of objects that attain sft. in length, and three-quarters of a ton in -weight; they cannot lie in the open while the metals rust and corrode, and as time goes on, the explosives develop uncertain tempers. After a few years the. shells would be "duds." The only thing to do is to break them down. There are for this course good reasons other than the storage problem. With copper over £IOO a ton and serge at 13s a yard, we have here a reserve of materials worth many millions, and, moreover, we need the actual materials, for the world is starved of raw materials, for peaceful industry. Here are thousands of tons of steel, copper, aluminium, brass, tin plate, cardboard, paper textiles etc., all of which can be used.

Even sonic of the explosives can be applied to peace. They ar too swift for mine and tunnel blasting, but all have a composition more or loss similar to the valuable nitrates which we use as fertilisers. They are perfectly safe if used in the open, and it is comic to think that next year a French peasant may be manuring a trench-cloven field with the contents of a German shell.

A great deal of stock is made up of metal parts which can be melted down. We hold a great many empty shells, fuses, cartridge cases, finished or partly worked; all . this cun go to the crucible, and it will please the taxpayer to know that in many cases we can recover in good metal as much as a fifth to a quarter of the cost.

As for filled 'shells and cartridges, the operation will .be -rather more complicated; it is not dangerous if the rules are followed, and indeed, it is rare that breaking down causes a casualty, but it involves a. groat deal of work.

Shells arc easily emptied, for most explosives arc meltable or soluble, and can be poured out of the shell that contains then; the explosive does not protest, and though cordite prefers to be cut with bronze scissors (because this prevents sparks), those operations, are simple enough. Some very sensitive parts, such as defoliators, must be dumped in the sea, but such parts as fuses can easily be taken to pieces and scut to the molting pot Avhile the valuable cambric and serge of the cartridge bags can be ripped away from the cordite. All this will''provide many months of work for thousands of men and women; as an average round will produce 501 b. to 1001 b. of steel and 51b. of brass, this will bo one of the first occasions where war is made to pay.