DUM-DUM BULLETS

Northern Advocate, 8 February 1936, Page 4

DUM-DUM BULLETS

An allegation that one or other of the combatants was using dum-dum bullets has been heard during every war in which modern rifles have been operated. The long, metal pointed bullet of modern type will pass through the human body and make only a clean cut and a very small wound. If the nose of the bullet is cut, or in any way roughened, the result has a terrible effect upon the human frame in which lit may find a billet. Even if it I does not explode, it tears the I flesh and magnifies a wound that | would otherwise be comparatively simple. The use of dumdums is regarded with loathing by all decent peoples, and the users of them are placed very low in the social scale. To what extent bullets have been deliberately transformed into dum-dums it is impossible to say, but there is no doubt that reports of their misuse in this connection have been regarded as good propaganda by those who desired the world’s sympathy. A good deal has been heard of this matter during the war in East Africa. Today’s cables make reference to an Italian allegation that British armament makers are supplying the Abyssinians with dum-dums. The Italians quoted an order which was alleged to have required that half the bullets should be “clipped,” that is, converted into dum-dums. The British reply to this is that the order required that half the consignment of cartridges should be clipped (placed in clips of five). This, if a true interpretation of the order, is a horse of a different colour, and serves to prove once again that reports of atrocities need to he accepted with cauion.