OBSOLETE ARMS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 117, 19 May 1909, Page 3

OBSOLETE ARMS.

HOW DID THEY REACH THE INDIAN FRONTIER? CAPTAIN O'SULLIVAN INTEKyiEWED. fßi Telegraph. — Special to The Post.] DUNEDIN, This Day. Captain O'Sullivan, Director of Military Stores for New Zealand, is at present in Dunedin, and yesterday he was interviewed by a Star representative about the allegation that arms bearing the Australian and New Zealand Government brands had found their way into the hands of the Pathans on the Indian frontier. The facts he narrated show that the New Zealand authorities can in no way be held blameworthy for this. "There is," he said, "a Board of Survey, consisting of three officers, who decide what is to be done with any obsolete Government property. In 1907 'we had 15,000 obsolete rifles, comprising 7000 Snider rifles, 3000 Snider carbines, 4500 Martini-Henry rifles, 500 MartiniHenry carbines, and 340 Lee-Remington rifles. The decision of the Board of Survey was to advertise these arms for sale, and they were advertised for three weeks in the press of the Dominion. The sale took place in July, 1907, and the board accepted the highest tender, but one of the conditions of sale was that these arms had to be shipped to England. We have a law prohibiting the shipping of arms to the Islands, and that is a reason why I put that condition of sale in. The arms were all purchased by a Manchester firm, through the latter's agent in New Zealand. 1 saw overy one of those rifles put on board the s.s. Mamari at Wellington; in fact, I contracted to put them all on board. From Wellington the Mamari sailed direct to London, via the New Zealand Shipping Company's usual route. By the same mail I notified the War Office in England of the shipment, giving the number of rifles, the brand, the number stamped on every rifle, and the contents of each case. 'The taking of all these precautions was not obligatory on us, and in about four months bac;v came &, reply from the War Office asking why we sent all that information. In effect, the War Office asked : 'What has it cot to do with us V " In further explanation of this latter point, Captain O'Sullivan continued : "Every January, every British dominion in the world "has to 'send to the War Office details of all the arms and equipment in the country; and about two years before this particular occurrence we had dropped these rifles out of our return, because they were obsolete, and we did not consider them any defence ; but the War Office promptly asked us what had become of the arms. Hence we notified them directly the sale was over.'" As to the Australian arms which the Calcutta newspaper, The Englishman, suggested went direct from Australia to India, Captain O'Sullivan sta-ted that the Federal authorities sold them by auction without making it a condition of sale that they should go to 'England. Captain O'Sullivan further remarked that had our obsolete arms been dumped in the sea the New Zealand press would probably have raised an outcry about it on the score of needless waste. As it was, a very considerable sum . (about £6000) was realised by the sale. He added that the greater part of the ammunition was destroyed in New Zealand. It was broken up for the sake of the metai, as the powder had caked. 'MartiniHenry ammunition, he explained, being

obsolete, could now be bought in England for £1 per 1000. 'Black powder is used for the Martinis, and its use discloses one's position to the enemy. As to the Lee-Remingtons, they were an American arm, which became obsolete years ago, and no ammunition for it was procurable in New Zealand, the defence authorities having destroyed every round of it on account of its liability to burst the rifles.