SURPRISE FOR THE WILD ABORS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 297, 14 December 1911, Page 8

SURPRISE FOR THE WILD ABORS.

NE'vT G-RENAXIB TO BE CSED tX PUNITIVE EXPEDITION.

When the Abors, the wild tribe on the Indo-Chinese frontier who murdered Mr. Williamson, meet the punitive expedition which is advancing towards them, they will get an unpleasant surprise from a new weapon. This Is the -Master-Hale" rifle Ehrapnel grenade. This weapon, which is not nnliie a rocket. Li constructed of metal. The body is cylindrical in shape, just over an inch in diameter and 51 inches in lenpth. When fully charged it -weighs less than 1J lb. The tube is fixed at the end of a steel rod which is inserted in the muzzle of the ordinary service rifle, and the ordinary ser--tce cordite cartridge is used, with the exception that the buUet is extracted. Fired rrom the shoulder, the -grenade is propelled a distance of anything between 300 and 900 feet, the distance and elevation depending entirely upon the angle at which the rifle is held. The slightest Impact will cause the projectile to fly into about forty pieces, all of 'Which are calculated to kill a man 'Within a hundred feet radius. A soldier could carry a dozen of these grenades in his belt over the roughest ground ■with perfect safety, as the fuse is Inoperative until a small pin through the base of the {rrenade has been withdrawn. The grenade is expected to be particularly useful in routing the natives from their countless small entrenched positions and stockades. The Abors fight chiefly with the bow and arrow. Tvith the tips of •the arrows -poisoned. a3id the inestimable advantage of the ride grenade would be •that it conld be fired from a point outside the "widest possible danger zone of the native's arrow.