TON OF DYNAMITE.

Western Star, 18 October 1932, Page 2

TON OF DYNAMITE.

MYSTERIOUS DUMP.

FIND NEAR BUSY ROAD

By the merest eliance a dump of a ton of dynamite consisting of some 4000 cartridges, enough to bring instant death to hundreds of people, was lately found buried in the heart of a new housing estate at Kingston, Surrey. AA r ho buried this deadly dump of explosive P asks the Daily Mail. This is a mystery which Scotland Yard, the Home Office, and the local police are attempting to solve. The location of the dump is the junction of AA’nrren Drive and the Kingston by-pass road at Tolworth Rise. It .was discovered

by workmen sent to repair a drain in ill the garden of the nearest house. The foreman ganger, Mr A, Croupier, immediately went to tell his employer, who owns the laud.

The owner, a builder, said j “AYhcu I heard that the dump had been found I hurried over and saw the men throwing up sticks of dynamite unconcernedly. as if they were skittles. I warned them to be careful and telephoned for the police.”

Immediately orders were given for the explosive, which was packed in big wooden boxes' marked “fjynapiite,” to be removed to AA T oolwich jrseual, A strong guard of police surrounded the scene, and passers-by were warned not to go near and not to smoke.

Under tlie supervision of high officials of Scotland Yard and Home Offie e explosive experts the last of between seven and eight thousand deadly sticks of dynamite were removed.

“I liav e lived almost on top of the dynamite for nearly three years,” said the woman who occupies the nearest house.

Scotland Yard officials got into communication with the manufacturers of the dynamite, Messrs Nobel’s Limited, of Glasgow in an effort to discover the time when it was sold. It was in number ed cartons.

The maximum quantity of dynamite under special license, which i s ‘ allowed to be sold at on e time i s 2(J01b., and the question arises, ‘‘How was nearly a ton of the explosive bought, and how, when, and why was it buried at this spot?”

An explosives expert said: “If the workmen had Ifit a stick of the dyHamite itself with their spade s there might easily have been an explosion, a s a spade, would act a.s a detonator. In that case tli c dump would have been blown sky-high j the men blown to atoms and houses in the vicinity would possibly have been seriously affected.” Hie effect of damp on dynamite, is was explained, is to compress it, and thus make it more highly explosive. One of the workmen said, “When we struck the woodeu baulks of the dump we released a cloud of sulphur gas which was given off by the damp dynamite. Fortunately none of u s was smoking, or we might have ignited the gas. Three of us were overcome bv the fumes.”