KRUPP'S.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11217, 24 October 1914, Page 8

KRUPP'S.

THE BACKBONE OF THE GERMAN ARMIES.

(By C.V.W. in tho " Daily Mail.")

Tho present war lias as yet brought forth no greitfc figure among the German armies in tho field. Von Moltko has yet to prove himself the peer of his famous ancestor. Von Kluck and Von Mindoaburg, offioiont generals though they may be, have displayed no pre-eminent, qualities such as would range them beside their great forebears, Blumenthal or Von der Tann. Yet thero is ono German namo that, since the outbreak of tho war—and for many years past whenever tho German army has been mentioned—has been constantly on men's lips. That is Krupp's. Over-sanguino as men are in the first flush of relief after a period of acuto suspense, people are already wondering how far tho world-famous Krupp works at Essen are distant from the lino of advance of tho Allied armies- If airmen could sally out and destroy the vast hive of industry which has given Germany her mighty siege guns, her deadly held pieces, her innumerable quicklirers! Ivrupp's has been called _ tho Army and Navy Stores of tho nations. Essen is Krupp's; Krupp's is Essen. The erstwhile little Westphalian town has become ono gigantic factory, dominated by tho. genius of this one family whose three generations built up the greatest cannon and armour industry the world has over seen. Looking down on the town from one of tho pleasant wooded heights on which Alfred Krupp planted the colonies for aged or disabled veterans of industry, one sees a forest of tall chimneys and dozens of huge, lofty workshops marshalled like forts all round the habitations of men. On a nearer approach one discovers that some sixty factories make up this gigantic organisation. Forty miles of standard railway link them together and carry their products abroad to the great world, and thirty miles of narrow lines aro required as auxiliary for the shops. From the distance resounds the dull boom of the guns from the testing ranges at Meppen, where artillerymen, year in, year out ; are trying new weapons or experimenting with the resistance of armour plate. ARMY CORPS OF WORKMEN.

Forty thousand men, with 4000 officials, make up tho staff of this maze of factories and workshops in normal times. One can well believe how the staff has been increased in these anguishing days of war, when every German, great and small, realises that tho future of his Empire largely depends on the power and number of guns which Krupp's can place at the disposal of the armies of Germany and her Austrian ally. Besides this army corps of v.-orkmen at Essen, Krupp's have 10,000 miners digging the earth for coal in the firm's German collieries; 15,000 hands at the rolling mills of Annen and Gruson and the blast furnaces of Eheinhausen, Duisburg, Neuwicd and Engcrs; about 7000 workmen at the firm's shipbuilding yard, the Germania, at Kiel; and 5000 ore miners in Spain. It is symptomatic of the immense importance attached by the German General Staff to the continuance of work at Krupp's at the highest pressure that the_ general commanding the Rhine district has expressly refrained from calling up the Landsturm in order that the great national work may proceed unimpeded in the Rhenish industrial region where Krupp's is the leading concern. The private hotel maintained by the firm at Essen for the accommodation of its foreign visitors is characteristic of tho international character of the business done by Krupp's. Here, in days of peace, one met representatives of every civilised nation sent by their Governments to this international arsenal to purchase the arms of war or the implements of peace. For half tho KrUpp works at Essen are devoted to what in normal times seems to be the peaoeful work of commerce, but what in war time is an indispensable adjunct to the armies in the field. All that can be made of steel for railways is constructed here —wheels, axles, engine parts and rails. At Essen the German liners, now the m/urderous commerce destroyers of tho Atlantic and Pacific and Indian Oceans, received the huge castings for sternposb and stem' and crank-shafts, and are furnished with plates and frames. Fine steel for tools, the spades and picks of troops entrenching themselves, and a dozen other varieties proceed from Essen. THE VEIL OF SECRECY. But tho foreigner, however impeccable Iris recommendations and references, only sees as much of Krupp!s as tho firm will let him. Foreign military attaches, entranced at the exquisite courtesy which is the rule of this famous house, have seen the high hopes built upon the warmth of their welcome dashed to the ground when it has come to seeing over the workshops. They are hurried past here and hurried past there, and finally leave with a vague sense of vastness and method, but conscious of having signally failed to penetrate into the secrets of tbe concern. A good example of the secrecy wherewith Krupp's managed to envelop their affairs is seen in the huge siege guns, the .calibre of which rumour puts as high as 16in, with which the Germans battered down the forts of Liege and Namur.

It'was to make a finer steel that Peter Friedrich Krupp, the founder of tho firm, a penniless inventor, experimented so painstakingly and so long a century ago. He discovered the secret of the crucible, but could not find how to cast steel blocks. At his death his boy Alfred, then fourteen years of age, took up the work with faith and pertinacity, and on the development of the principle built up the present vast organisation. It was intellect and science applied to business that won him. tho victory. When nil the money was swallowed up in experiments with crucible steel he hit upon a new principle for a roller which brought him in money for further experiments, and in time the secret was discovered. In the 'forties he wanted to make cannon of cast steel, but failed. Then his inventiveness came to his help again and patented a moneymaking process for turning out weldless railway tyres. It made tho millions which were spent in developing the works and in making tho cannon which eventually came into their own. in the Franco-Prussian War. Though it is a joint-stock company in which practically all tho shares are owned by Frau Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, the only child of tho late Alfred Ivrupp, the third proprietor, and her husband, tho present managing director of the works, Krupp's is regarded by every patriotic German as a national possession. While Krupp's exists Germany will stand. That is tho firm belief of every member of this nation in arms.