DEALER IN DEATH.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20283, 27 August 1937, Page 10

DEALER IN DEATH.

INCEPTOR OF KRUPPS WORLD’S CANNON KING. (Times Air Mail Service). LONDON, July 18. | Alfred Krupp, World Cannon King No. 1, whose guns nearly won Hie war for Germany, died 50 years ago this week, says Reynolds Journal. I I Sixty thousand people, including Her- j tiian Royalty, attended his funeral. At I i Essen, Hie great armament works he * founded, the jubilee of Ids dcatli is to | i»e remembered. i Horn in 1812, lie loook control, in j 1.818, of the small iron works set up ! by his father, Friedrich. He found, j lie said, "three workmen and more . debts.” Within a short period lie I transformed tlie business into Hie I world’s biggest armament works, which, to-day, at Essen, cover over 2000 acres and employ more than I "80.00 C people. Krupp's Big Chance. Krupp’s big chance came with steel —following tlie invention of Bessemer’s process and the steam hammer. Oilier manufacturers suspected Hie new-fangled steel. Krupp did not. lie set up Hie first Bessemer steel plant in Germany, and went ail out for steel production. The tlrst Krupp steel cannon was rejected by every European Government. First man to buy them was tlie Khedive of Egypt. That set Hie hall rolling. The French bought 300. Other Governments had to buy, too. The ball of Arms Competition and War was rolling, rolling. . . . In 1868 he produced his broochloading gun and tried il out in Berlin against the old British muzzle-loader. Krupp's gun won hands down. Krupp —putting profits before patriotism—then offered to supply such guns to II!-. of France. Luckily' for Germany, Napoleon resisted Krupp’s sales-talk and did not. buy. The result was defeat and disaster. In the Franco-

Prussian war, German Krupp guns battered their way lo victory and blew Emperor Napoleon from his throne. Orders Rolled In. Thereafter, the fame of Krupp flamed round Hie world. Every nation clamoured for Ids guns. Among them was the pocket Pyrennes Republic of Andorra. They bought a big Krupp gun—but dare not fire it! Had they done so, the shell would have Ilown far beyond their frontiers I Krupp guns were willingly supplied to all comers. At Meppen tlie big j guns were tested and demonstrated j to militarists from nil parts of the I world. II was a Carnival of Death, a Bazaar of Butchery, with Ihe Cannon King swiftly booking orders. International Share-out. Although a mighty power among the world’s ai'ms* makers, Krupps had their rivals. Schneider; Vickers, Armstrong-Whitworth, Carnegie Steel; all sought a share of the golden shower of arms orders. Co-operation paid better Ilian competition, and for 12 years before Ihe war Krupps. Vickers and other firms amicably shared out tlie trade in dcatli through their joint association in tlie Harvey United Steel Company. Krupp early saw tlie importance, of naval armourplate, and after his dcatli his firm produced an armourplate • which was second to none. No Seat Power dare be without it—and Krupps.’ obligingly as ever, supplied for fatj fees to nil comers their method ofj armourplate construction. At Ihe outbreak of Ihe World War the British and German navies faced each other clad in Krupp steel. Hitler Helps. After the war the Krupp death factories at Essen were ‘ dimililariscd.'' Thousands of machines and utensils for the making of arms were destroyed. For a time it seemed Hie world was entering an era of peace and disarmament. Then Hitler came to power. Krupp von Bohlen tind llulbacli, chairman of the irrm. had financed him and the Nazis. Krupps’ reward has now come. Their dcatli factories arc agaiu

s working overtime. This year, for v the first-time for 14 years, they are again paying a dividend. Krupp shells battered the way Into Hilboa. Krupp guns murder women 5 and children in Madrid. Krupp artil- , i lery Is trying to blow democracy to j pieces in Spain—and perhaps in Brij tain to-morrow. 11