clutched the .30-06 Springfield in the
Argonne, and later still, the .30 Garand
in the Solomons. Every one of these
U.S. military cases did its share for
freedom.

If you're interested in curious or
unusual cases, here’s a tiny Kolibri
automatic shell. Less than 3 milli-
metres in diameter a man could hide
it under his thumbnail! It comes from
Germany and there’s a story that the
tinier-than-vest-pocket arm it fitted,
was used in espionage work. Although
only about the third of the length of
a match, and about as thick, it has a
primer in the base.

Among the cases, looking out of
place, are some bullets. But bullets
with a difference. These are Vol-
canic’s. The explosive charge is in the
hollow base of the bullet, backed by a
primer. No cartridge case is employed.
When the firing pin struck the
primer, the explosive charge was set
off and the expanding gases drove the
bullet out the barrel—a form of jet
propulsion.

A Top Secret

Joe Gibault picked out an innocu-
ous-looking shell, that I thought at
first glance was for a Luger. It is
merely catalogued as ‘*.30 Pedersen De-
vice,” yet it was one of the top U.S.
secrets of World War I. J. D. Peder-
sen, so the story goes, developed a
device which could be attached to the
regulation Springfield rifle, and made
it into an automatic weapon. You
just substituted an automatic bolt for
the regular one. Attached to the new
bolt was a magazine holding 40
rounds. Sixty-five thousand of these
devices were made but they never saw
service. All were ordered destroyed by
the U.S. government, and the only
samples in existence today are in arms
museums. Workers in ammunition
factories never had an inkling of what
arm the shells were for, and even the
cartridge boxes were labelled to de-
ceive the enemy. Today in the U.S.
forces, the .30 Garand fulfils, with an
eight shot limit, the performance of
the Pedersen device..

And speaking of automatic wea-

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Page Eighty-two

pons; it’s a far cry from the modern
Sten, Bren or Thompson, to the .56
calibre Billinghurst Requa Mitrail-
leuse. This big metal cartridge was
used decades ago in a wheel-mounted
gun that had 24 barrels, all in a row.
The shells were mounted on a long
metal strip and loaded into twenty-
four breeches simultaneously. A per-
cussion cap ignited a train of powder,
which set off each cartridge in turn,
through a small hole in the base of
the shell.

In this biggest Canadian collection
of shells, there are pin fires, rim fires,
lip fires. All the theories for rapid
ignition that have developed in a
hundred years. There’s a -50 calibre
rifle shell with a rubber case. It was
made for the Smith breech-loading
carbine. The idea was that it would
return to size after expansion and
help the reloading problem. If you
think the .45 is a big revolver shell,
take a look at this .476 Enfield, or the
.591 to fit a French revolver. There’s
a 9 millimetre Mars auto pistol shell,
developed in England about 1900, and
reputedly most powerful handgun
cartridge ever made.

A Rare Shell

Before I left the collection, I asked
Joe to show me his rarest case, and he
produced the .70/150 Winchester. I
looked it over with more than usual
interest, as he went on to tell me that
it is one of the rarest, if not the
rarest cartridge the collector goes
after. Apparently all details of its
manufacture are lost, and the Win-
chester people don’t know much
about it. No one can figure out what
gun it was made for. The shell was
exhibited by Winchester at the Phila-
delphia Centennial Exposition in
1876, but the exposition records are
gone. Were a few of these made for a
special gun? No one knows. Anyway
it is catalogued in a leading cartridge
book (“€artridges” by Herschel
Logan), as “a very desirable rarity of
the first order.” Oh! Yes, it’s worth
money.

Like most hobbyists Gibault swaps
and corresponds with other collectors
in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver,
and across the border in Tacoma and
Portland. Although entirely unpro-
fessional, he can rank as a leading
Canadian authority on cartridges. So
if you have an old case that needs
identifying, send it along to him. He
can give you the answer. * +

A. S. M.

Branch 15, Canadian Legion,
B.E.S.L., Abbotsford

* .
The Hub of the Fraser Valley

R.C.M.P. REPORTS
CRIME ON INCREASE
IN CANADA

Crime is on the increase in Canada.

The R.C.M.P. investigated 88,351
cases during the year ended March
last, compared with 80,927 in the pre-
vious year, the annual report of the
force shows. The R.C.M.P. polices all
provinces except Ontario and Quebec.

In the North there were a total
of 3,006 prosecutions and convictions
compared with 1,571 for the Yukon
and Northwest Territories in the
corresponding period of 1948-49.

Crime was higher in almost every
province. Nova Scotia had the largest
number of cases investigated by the
federal force—3,737 under the Crim-
inal Code, 12,652 under the provincial
statutes and 1,143 under federal
statutes.

Many Theft Cases

In the provinces, the R.C.M.P. in-
vestigated ten cases of attempted
murder, 257 cases of arson, 2,515 cases
of general assault, 328 cases of cattle
stealing, 61 cases of manslaughter, 64
cases of robbery with violence, 41 safe-
blowings, 3,110 cases of breaking, en-
tering and theft, and 4,342 cases of
general theft.

The convictions in the Northland
were not shown as between natives
and whites, who together number
nearly 17,000 throughout the Yukon
and the Northwest Territories. Most
of the white population is centred
around the larger towns, such as
Whitehorse and Dawson City, Y.T.,
and Yellowknife, N.W.T.

In a section dealing with conditions
among Indians and Eskimos, the re-
port mentioned drinking by Indians
around the larger white settlements.
They were getting liquor illegally and
although the situation had “never got
out of hand,” a large number of con-
victions had been pressed.

There also had been some drinking
among Eskimos living at Tuktoyaktuk
at the mouth of the Mackenzie Delta
and a few at Aklavik who obtained
liquor by illicit means.

The report said “this situation now
has been remedied and is being
watched to prevent recurrences in the
future.” 5 %&

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