HOW AFRIDIS GET THEIR RIFLES.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9985, 15 March 1898, Page 2

HOW AFRIDIS GET THEIR RIFLES.

THIEVES AND THEIR DEVICES.

v Pall Mall Gazette,

The fact that the tribesmen are in possession of a very large number of both Govern--ment pattern and other rifles, and are capable of using them effectively, has been brought home to us very forcibly in the recent operations. For years every officer in India has been aware that constant thefts of rifles take place, and that the destination of all stolen arms is the trans-frontier region between our border and Afghanistan'; but few people have had, until lately, any idea of the enormous number of rifles possessed by the tribesmen. The great majority of them' are stolen from regiments in India, or from the Indian arsenals, and possibly a few find their way in from Persia. The Ameer has now a manufactory in Kabul under the management of Sir Salter Pyne, where very serviceable-looking MartiniHenry rifles and solid drawn ammunition are turned out in large quantities each year. His Highness has also been from time to time in receipt of large numbers of rifles from the Indian Government as presents. Probably the Ameer is as equally disinclined as we are to'alloW any 'df "these rifles to fall into the hands of the tribesmen, knowing' that at any time they might be used against his own troops; but if he is successful in entirely stopping the " leakage" he is more fortunate than the Indian Government.

Rifles that have become unserviceable are returned to the nearest arsenal to be destroyed. This need to be done by cutting

the barrel into pieces four or five inches long, and breaking the lock and other component parts. These pieces were then sold as old From the appearance of these piece's one would imagine that it would be impossible to reconstruct a rifle from them, but. the blacksmiths across the border have proved themselves capable of doing so, anrl of turning out a rifle that fetches a good price; and this with the most primitive tools.

In Kashmir the armourers turn out sporting rifles of etiry sort and description, copying any rifle they can get the loan of moat accurately. Their usual charge is £6 for a single barrelled express, and £12 for a double-barrelled express. These rifles undoubtedly shoot fairly straight, and every armourer in Srinagar can produce certificates from dozens of officers who have used them. These rifles are also made with very primitive " plant," and doubtless at times their makers turn out military rifles that find their way into the hands of the tribesmen.

Ingenious Smugglers.

Great as is the ingenuity with which these rifles are made, still greater is the ingenuity with which entire rifles or rifle barrels are from time to time smugarled oub of the arsenals in which they are stored. All stores in an arsenal are repeatedly, counted and checked, every storeroom aud magazine is carefully locked, and the keys are deposited every night in charge of a guard. No unauthorised person is allowed in an arsenal. Every workman is searched on leaving the place, and has then to undergo the scrutiny of the guards both at the arsenal gates and at the gates of the fort that surrounds it, and yet every now and again rifles or rifle barrels mysteriously disappear. In some cases the European subordinates are the culprits. A case occurred a few years ago, where over a hundred Snider and Martini-Henry rifles were discovered in a native dealer's shop. From the numbers, and marks on the rifles they were easily proved to have been some condemned rifles sent to the arsenal to be broken up, and a certificate that they had been destroyed had been furnished by the arsenal authorities. In this case there was no doubt whatever that the European subordinates were the culprits. The oase was the subject of much comment at the time it occurred, and attention has been called to it in the recent correspondence in the Indian pressf

Many rifles are stolen from British regiments both in cantonments and on the march, and these thefts are most common near the North-West frontier. In many cases they are attributable to the native servants. atbached to each regiment, who are free to come and go in barracks as they please. In other cases the thefts are committed by professional rifle thieves—Pathans generally—-who work their way into barracks at night. These men are almost invariably armed, and have no scruples about using their arms if detected, or even to avoid detection, and a good many cases are on record of soldiers having been stabbed to death by rifle thieves, especially in cantonments north of the Jhelum. Sentries are sometimes shot for the sake of their rifles. In these cases bhe bhieves generally work in couples, and while one .man attracts the sentry's attention the other works his way close up to him under cover, shoots him, and makes off wibh his rifle before assistance can come from the guard house. It is but seldom that rifle thieves are caught; they work on a dark night, with arrangements for their flight carefully made beforehand, but ib sometimes occurs tbat they are apprehended and handed over to. justice. Then the punishment they receive is very, heavy.

Tommy Atkins and the Thieves.

Any man losing a rifle is necessarily tried by court-martial, and that and possibly the death-of a comrade done to death-by rifle thieves makes Tommy Atkins inclined to show scant mercy to any rifle thieves that fall into his hands. Mysterious, tales are at times hinted ab of rifle thieves caught by the men who were never heard of again. .When a regiment is under canvas, thefts are made much easier and occur much more especially with a regiment new to v the country. Many patterns of armracks have been suggested to prevent the thefts pf rifles from barracks, bub so far no successful pattern has been invented, or, at any rate, introduced. Sometimes the thefts are very daring. In one instance an arm*rack, weighing by itself probably nearly a hundredWeight and holding a dozen carbines, sabres, and accoutrements, was carried bodily out of a tent, in which some ten or twelve men were sleeping. The rack was found the next morningabout half a mile away, but the arms were never recovered. Possibly in this case some of the men were implicated, for Thomas Atkins ie occasionally not above temptation, and the price given for rifles and carbines is very large. In Tirah a rifle easily fotches £15 or more. - Lee-Metfords were formerly not in much favour with the tribesmen; they distrusted v the small-bore, and their disbelief in its stopping powers was confirmed by their experiences of it in the Chitral expedition. Now that the Dum Dam bullet has been introduced they are, however, only too eager to possess a LeeMebford.

Native regiments lose far fewer rifles than British regiments. In the ease of the former, rifles in cantonments are always kept in bills of arms under a sentry, and are only taken out to be cleaned or when required for duty, On the march, every man invariably sleeps with his rifle attached to .his person, and natit-e sentries are both keener sighted in the dark and more used to. the ways of the country than British soldiers, and rifle thieves find ib harder to escape their vigilance. Among native regiments on the frontier a system prevails of making all the men in each company responsible for every rifle in the company. Every recruit on joining has 12s deducted from his pay by monthly instalments, and on a rifle being lost the trans-border value of a rifle is deducted from the company fund thus formed. On a man taking his discharge hiß 12s, lees deductions for rifles that have disappeared, is given back to him. This system works well", for it is difficult for a man to make away with arifle without some of the o.Bev men, of the company bein*.

cognisant of, or at any rate suspecting, it, I Rifles, however, are very seldom lost by a g good native regiment. jf - A Very Dead Dog. 1 The ways in whioh rifles are smuggled i across the frontier are numerous. Generally g the stock and woodwork is destroyed, and m the barrel and mechanism are concealed in a g bale of cotton or other merchandise, con- « signed to a merchant in a frontier town, m Sometimes the barrels are concealed ia a 1 man's bedding, and sometimes in a Pathan'a 1 loose clothing slung down his side. An i amusing instance occurred a few years ago, I A tall Patlian woman, dressed in a burka— 1 the long, loose white garment worn by 1 Pathan women, and very similar to that 1 worn by Turkish women, covering, as ib i does, the body fron* head to foot and con- § cealirig the face—got out of the train at a i junction on the line to Peshawar, and during I a quarrel with a-sweetmeat-seller cuffed the i man's head. The New Woman has not 1 made much progress in India, and such 1 action on the part of a Purdah lady was i sufficient to arouse the suspicions even of a I sleepy Punjabi constable. The "lady "was i searohed. "She" was. found to have a fine | pair of whiskers, and also a rifle-barrel slung § down each leg. On another occasion an 1 inspector of police in the Peshawar Valley | noticed a funeral party carrying what 1 appeared to be a corpse on a native bed, 1 The party were very ostentatious in their 1 lamentations, and there was no doubt to 1 any one to leeward that the corpse had been | dead for a very long While. Something 1 aroused the inspector's suspicions, however, I and on investigation the corpse turned out. jfc to be an extremely dead dog and a dozen rifles. Ammunition disappears in much the same way, both from arsenals and from regiments. The greatest precautions are taken at ball-firing to secure the return ol the same number of cartridges or empty cases as have been issued, and every round is supposed to be accounted for, but time after time it has been proved that the tribesmen are in possession of large quafttitiet of Government ammunition.