SHACKLED TERROR

Evening Star, Issue 18173, 13 January 1923, Page 14

SHACKLED TERROR

SYDNEY HARBOR EXPLOSIVES MAGAZINE* DEATH WAITS A SLIP. [From. ’Smith’s Weekly.'] Equally with tho races of history, modern civilisation abases itself before its gods. One of tho most potent of those, before which tho whole -world trembled-, for four terrible years, has a. shrine in a sequestered spot near Sydney. Ba.ndal-c.lad acolytes attend In's pleasure, stealing through strange caves and houses not built with nails, bound on silent errands, and wielding quaint implements of bronze. They livo in a floating house in an area forbidden to strangers, and- —like th© Buddhist monks—they may not carry money in their garments. Any transgression of tho rigid regulations ot thoir order is punishable with a swift and terrible death—a death the more hideous in that all pay for tho sin of one, and tho innocent suffer with th© guilty. Such ia tho shrine which, modern man has built far on© of tho energies wrestled from tho universe in tho explosive magazine at Bant-ry Bay. Bantry Bay ia ini Middle Harbor (Sydney). it is “out of bounds” both tor the outrider and tho denizen—to -be found “ inside” or “out” without leave- is a punishable off on co. The stranger who enters th© forbidden area is searched as carefully as any suspected criminal at police headquarters, but the searchers confiscate only one class of object—anything made ot metal. Knives, watches, keys, coins, rings, chains, and' pocket corkscrews aro all anathema ; cigarette cases and metal-clasp pocket books come equally under tho ban; a, man who was found using a. na.il- for a trouser button would- probably get six months. Your boots arc removed, and a pair of soft goloshes substituted:; and-, being now pronounced “clean,” you arc permitted- (under escort) to roam tho devious galleries and subterranean, ways of tho magazine like any “foreign, devil” liberated on sufferance in a Mohammedan mosque.. Trifling a-; these procaulons may seem, a ghastly penalty waits on thoir non-oo-sorvance. fc>teol and iron arc sources of sparks or liny currents of electricity quite tiiltioieut to start an explosion. Grit of any kind produces friction, which again sots up “static” electricity—a minute “•discharge” of which has tired many a powder magazine. Only three months ago tho Grod.cn explosives depot at Cuxhavcn (Germany) was blown to pieces, thirty workmen being killed and 145 injured. Tho disaster followed immediately after tho visit of tho Interallied Commission, and was probably due to soma relaxation or infringement of the usual stringent visiting regulations. A short-circuit during a storm accounted toi- the magazine at Spezzia (Italy) recently, setting free tho titanic energy of 1,500’ tons of explosive material. Over 200 were killed and 500 injured, the concussion killing many people in neighboring villages and devastating a whole district. Tho exact cause of this disaster is a. mystery; according to the cables the storm was not responsible for it. Not improbably the. short-circuit was caused through tho’ careless introduction: of some implement of iron or steel, and th© folly of one man paid for by the sacrifice of 200 innocent lives. THE EDGE OF .ETERNITY. With such recollections in his mind the visitor feels uncomfortably ill at ease as ho gazes at the serried ranks of explosives stored in caves cut out of tho cliff or watches workmen unconcernedly juggling with packages of death as they are loaded on trollies. (Nor docs it relievo his anxiety to learn that (though tho present hoard is less) 2,5C0 tons of high explosives were stored here during tho war, or that tho whole magazine could ho “started” by a 2lb packet of certain material falling a distance of sft. 'The wav accumulation of 100,000 cases of 561 b each was a sufficient quantity to destroy th© whole city. But habit becomes second nature. Tho tramway straphanger has long banished from his mind tho disturbing fact that ho ia an atom clinging to & spinning glbbo in a none-too-stahle universe; ho is more concerned with thjs nightly anxiety of keeping his feet while tho mundane tramcar jerks to a sudden stop or rounds a curve, Tho 'Bantry Bay workman has equally lost interest in Iris dangerous surroundings. If ho worries at all it is over a toothache or a good thing for tho Cup. Ho may bo sitting oa. tho edge of Eternity, but it is an edge worn blunt by Jong acquaintance, over-familiarity, and years of unovonlfuliicsa None tho less, tlie poll is there. There aro fourteen separate magazines at Bantry, built into cavef*cu,t out of tbo hillside, so that tho fore© of any explosion is directed seawards and upwards. There aro special magazines for fireworks and also for detonators. No iron, or stool was used in their construction, even the nails and rivets being copper and bronze. Even tho trolly wheels aro of bronze, and tho workmen are not allowed to wear boots, the Government providing them with sandals made of rope. Metal buttons aro taboo, and their packets are empty. Yet life has its compensations. 1 hey livo in a, palatial houseboat, fish, from their own quarter-deck, and nm an oyster reserve for thoir private use. A chemist kept on the premises tests tho explosives ©very three months to make sure they are not developing dangerous qualities. There are worse occupations than that of these houec-boaitmert, and no doubt to tho longestablished explosive-material worker tho job of driving a bus to Rose Bay is looked on as one fraught with deadly peril to existence. SAFETY—AND THE PRICE. The department keeps a tug and seven lighters tor transportation purposes, and th-e procession of the steamer with one or more trailers, painted wliito and Hying the red flag, is si commonplace sight on Port Jackson. It has its humorous side as well, for, owing to tho stringency of th© regulations, it fakes a lug, a lighter, and a complot© -boat’s crew to transport to Sydney a few packages of crackers—eventually destined to linger in suburban toyshops unguarded and in th© vicinity of myriad ricm-nailcd boots of the pass-ers-by. We smile at the strict enforcement of th© regulation in this case, but tho principle underlying tho practice is sound, on© tiny squib loose in a magazine co-uld account for 1,000 tons of explosives and hundreds of lives. With tho slightest relaxation of watchfulness Bantry Bay “ goes up ”-—lilco Cuxhavcn, Spezzie, and tho ever-increasing roll of ships of war. For, in spit© of .eternal vigilance, tho Demon of Destruction perpetually finds his opportunity to strike—and strikes to kill. W© -have enslaved tho Thunder God—or think wo have don© so. Down in Middle Harbor soft-footed) attendants guard him from tho menace of dust endsteel. All reasonable precautions ar© taken to maintain him in hia bonds. Yot tho blind iorcea of Nature know naught of reason. An inexplicable explosion may yot warn; Sydney that the strange now captive god of civilisation can be destroyer a© well as slave.