Dum-Dum Bullets Mike Waldren QPM Police History Series 2012PFOAPoliceFirearmsOfficersAssociationHeadOffice:PFOA,POBox116,March,PE155BATel:08455430163Email:info@pfoa.co.ukRegisteredCharityNo.1139247CompanyNo.07295737June2012

Dum-Dum Bullets Page 1 It Will Rip The Arm From A Normal Healthy Human The kind of ammunition used by police forces in the United Kingdom occasionally becomes a subject for heated debate, particularly if there is any suggestion that the police have used, are using, or intend to use, Dum-Dum bullets. Few people, however, have any real idea of what such abulletactuallyis. More often than not it is described as being a bullet that will rip the arm from a normal and healthyhumanor cause some other unspeakable injury. That, so popular legend has it, is why it was outlawed by civilised states including Great Britain in 1899 at the Hague Convention (although an unspecified Geneva Convention is often substituted) thus ensuring that only humane bullets have been used in armed conflicts ever since. The reality is very different and fallacies have plagued the subject from the time the bullet was invented. How It All Started Chitral was a small principality in what today is the far North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. When the Mehtar (ruler) of Chitral died in 1892 thefirstofhisseventeensons,Nizam-ul-Mulk,claimedthethrone.Heenjoyedfriendly relations with the British but in J anuary 1895 he was killed at the instigation of one of his half-brothers, Amir-ul-Mulk, who promptly took over. Amir had no time for the British Raj andapoliticalagent,Surgeon-Major(laterSir)GeorgeRobertson,wassentwithasmall military detachment to deal with the matter. Robertson deposed Amir and installed his more compliant 12-year-old brother, Shujah-ul-Mulk, in his place. Amir appealed to his brother-in-law, Umra Khan, and his uncle, Sher Afzal, for help. They agreed (probably intending to get ridofhimaswellsothatoneofthemcouldruleinstead)andbetween3,000and5,000 tribesmen laid siege to Robertson and his men in the small Chitral Fort. Typical Modern Polemical Diatribe on Dum-Dum Bullets Dum-Dum Bullets Page 2 Two attempts at relief failed and with more Chitralis joining Umra Khan and Sher Afzal every day the British government decided on a full scale expedition of 15,000 men. While these marched up from the south and engaged the bulk of the opposition along the way, a small secondary force commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel J ames Kelly marched from Gilgitintheeast.They heroically crossed the 220 miles of mountains, some of which were covered in deepsnow,toreach ChitralFortintwenty-eightdaysandUmra KhanandSherAfzal abandonedthesiege.The main relief force arrived a few days later. The British suffered less than a hundred casualties and although the losses suffered by Sher Afzal and Umra Khan are unknown, they werereportedlyinthethousands.ItwasthestuffofwhichgloriousVictorianmilitary triumphs were made but it would have been consigned to the pages of history were it not for the actions of some of the British soldiers who took part. It was the military expedition that brought about the Dum-Dum bullet. The late 1800s was a time of great change for all European armies in terms of what firearms they carried and the ammunition they used. In the case of the British, 1866 had seen the introduction of the breech-loading Enfield-Snider rifle which discharged an all-lead .577 calibre bullet at a muzzle velocity of 1,250 ft/s. This was superseded in 1871 by the Martini-Henry which fired a .450/577 calibre all-lead bullet at a similar muzzle velocity. In 1888 the first true repeating rifle in the form of the bolt-action Lee-Metford was introduced. It had a box magazine and the ammunition to accompany it was of .303 calibre. The smaller sized bulletwaslighterandthismeantthatthemuzzlevelocityincreasedto1,830ft/sthereby increasingtherangebuttherewasaproblem.Greaterspeedmeantthatmoreheatwas generated with the result that some of the lead adhered to the lands and grooves in the barrel causing fouling. To overcome this, a cupro-nickel jacket was added to stop the lead coming intodirectcontactwiththeriflebore.Thevastamountofsmokegeneratedbytheblack British soldiers during the Chitral Expedition Dum-Dum Bullets Page 3 powder charge was overcome when cordite (a mixture of nitro-glycerine, nitro-cellulose and mineral jelly) was introduced in 1891 as a smokeless powder. This also had the effect of increasing the muzzle velocity, this time to 1,970 ft/s. The final development of the cartridge had a round-nosefully-jacketed bullet and was officially knownas the Cartridge S.A. Ball, Magazine Rifle Cordite Mark I, later to become the Mark II. Soldiersthemselvesdidntlikethenewbulletfor severalreasons.Firstlytherewasthesoldierstraditional mistrust and suspicion of anything dreamed up as being ideal for their purposes by someone who, to borrow a military idiom from later years, had never been up to their neck in muck and bullets. This was exacerbated by their not being able to see a comforting lump of soft lead that would be sent hurtling toward the enemy and because the bullet was smaller they believed that it was not likely to be so effective anyway. TheirworstfearswererealisedduringtheopeningskirmishesintheChitral expedition when rumours started to spread of tribesmen who were still able to fight even after they had been hit by several bullets. One story, which no doubt improved with the telling, circulated widely about a tribesman who had been hit by six bullets and yet fully recovered afterhospitaltreatment.Giventheaveragesoldiers talent for improvisation it was not long before one of them discovered that by taking a bullet and rubbing the nose of it against a stone it was possible to wear away the top of the jacket so that the old familiar lead could beseeninside.Whenthiswasfiredatacharging tribesman it had the desired result. The need for the British to have an ammunition factory in India had been recognised as early as 1846 andthefirsttobeconstructedwasatDumDum,a small town north-west of Calcutta (renamed as Kolkata in2001).AtthetimeoftheChitralexpeditionthe superintendentofthefactorywasaRoyalArtillery Martini -HenryMark II .450/577.303 Charging Chitral tribesmen Dum-Dum Bullets Page 4 Captain, Neville Bertie-Clay (sometimes spelt without the hyphen).Bertie-Clayhad spent much of his career so far in the Indian Ordnance Department and he was not one to approve of soldiers messing about with his ammunition. He was, however, sympathetic and so he started his own series of trials with the standard military bullet (the Mark II). He found that thebenefitsofthecupro-nickeljacketwhich,itwillberemembered,wasonlythereto prevent lead fouling in the barrel, were unaffected by the removal of the top one millimetre of it to expose the lead and that the increase in the performance of the bullet in terms of stopping power was significant. His factory therefore started to turn out what today would be called a jacketed soft-point bullet and it is this that was the original Dum-Dum. Itwasjustintimebecause1897sawageneraloutbreakofrebellionagainstthe British.TheRisingsontheNorth-WestFrontierwascompiledin1898fromthehighly detailedreportsofspecialwarcorrespondentsandofficialdispatches,manyofwhichit quoted verbatim. It described the revolt as encompassing: From Waziristan on the left to Bimerontherightastretchofmorethan400milesofourborderland,inhabited...by 200,000 first-rate fighting men. ... The tribes which immediately face us on this frontier line, commencing at the top of the semicircle at Dirbund, on the Indus, are, taking them in their order, the Bunerwals, the Swats, the Utman Khels, and the Mohmunds; then come the Khyber Pass and the Afridis, and lastly, on the northern flank of the road from Kohat to Thull, the Orakzai. The Myths Begin Intheearlystagesthisresultedintheformationofapunitive expedition,underthecommandofthemagnificentlynamedMajor-General Sir Bindon Blood, which would gain international renown as a resultofanarrativebyayounglieutenantwho accompaniedtheexpedition.Hisnamewas WinstonChurchillandhisbookwasentitledTheStoryofthe MalakandFieldForce.Init,hedescribedhowduringoneaction: Determined and vigorous sword charges were now delivered on all sides of the camp. The enemy, who numbered about 4,000, displayed the greatest valour. ... The fire of the British was, however, crushing. Blood Churchill Dum-Dum Bullets Page 5 Their discipline was admirable, and the terrible weapon with which they were armed, with its more terrible bullet, stopped every rush. Churchill went on to write that: The power of the new Lee-Metford rifle with the new Dum-Dum bulletit is now called, though not officially, the "ek-dum" (Hindustani for "atonce.")bulletistremendous. The soldiers who have used it have theutmostconfidenceintheir weapon. Up to 500 yards there is no difficultyaboutjudgingtherange, asitshootsquitestraight,or, technicallyspeaking,hasaflat trajectory.Thisisofthegreatest value. Of the bullet it may be said, thatitsstoppingpowerisallthat couldbedesired.TheDum-Dum bullet,thoughnotexplosive,is expansive. The original Lee-Metford bullet was a pellet of lead covered by a nickel case with anopeningatthebase.Intheimprovedbulletthisoutercasehasbeendrawnbackward, making the hole in the base a little smaller and leaving the lead at the tip exposed. The result is a wonderful and from the technical point of view a beautiful machine. On striking a bone thiscausesthebulletto"setup"orspreadout,anditthen tearsandsplinterseverything beforeit,causingwoundswhichinthebodymustbegenerallymortalandinanylimb necessitate amputation. Continental critics have asked whether such a bullet is not a violation of the Geneva or St. Petersburg Conventions; but no clause of these international agreements forbidsexpansivebullets,andtheonlyprovisiononthesubjectisthatshellslessthana certain size shall not be employed. I would observe that bullets are primarily intended to kill, and that these bullets do their duty most effectually, without causing any more pain to those struck by them, than the ordinary lead variety. As the enemy obtained some Lee-Metford riflesandDum-Dumammunitionduringtheprogressofthefighting,informationonthis latterpointisforthcoming.Thesensationisdescribedassimilartothatproducedbyany bulleta violent numbing blow, followed by a sense of injury and weakness, but little actual pain at the time. Indeed, now-a-days, very few people are so unfortunate as to suffer much pain from wounds, except during the period of recovery. A man is hit. In a quarter of an hour, A Malakand camp Dum-Dum Bullets Page 6 that is to say, before the shock has passed away and the pain begins, he is usually at the dressingstation.Hereheisgivenmorphiainjections,whichreduceallsensationstoa uniform dullness. In this state he remains until he is placed under chloroform and operated on. By way of contrast, TheRisingsontheNorth-WestFrontier limited itself to saying just once in its entire 250 pages with a further nine lengthy appendices that the Dum-Dum bullet was most effective but Churchill was not the only one to indulge in hyperbole when it came to describing the terrible Lee-Metford rifle and its more terrible bullet which caused wounds which in the body must be generally mortal and in any limb necessitate amputation. For Victorian readers this fed directly into their belief in the natural superiority of all things British and they lapped up every bit of it with undisguised relish. Unfortunately it also started a ball rolling that would prove impossible to stop. The Geneva Convention referred to by Churchill took place in 1864. It related solely tothemedicalcareofthewoundedandneednotconcernus.TheDeclarationofSt. Petersburg in November 1868 on the other hand had fixed the technical limits at which the necessities of war ought to yield to the requirements of humanity and decreed: That the only legitimate object which States should endeavour to accomplish during war is to weaken the militaryforcesoftheenemy;Thatforthispurposeitissufficienttodisablethegreatest possible number of men; That this object would be exceeded by the employment of arms which uselessly aggravate the sufferings of disabled men, or render their death inevitable; That the employment of such arms would, therefore, be contrary to the laws of humanity; The ContractingPartiesengagemutuallytorenounce,incaseofwaramongthemselves,the employmentbytheirmilitaryornavaltroopsofanyprojectileofaweightbelow400 grammes, which is either explosive or charged with fulminating or inflammable substances. The explosive bullet was a Victorian novelty used for a short while by hunters and consisted of a bullet with an internal cavity which was filled with a mixture of chlorate of potashandsulphuretofantimonyinequalpartsandclosedwithbeeswax.Thiswas supposed to detonate inside an animal thereby increasing the internal injuries as indeed it did when it worked. Modern versions are still available and one was used by J ohn Hinckley in his attempt to assassinate President Reagan in 1981. As far as the Dum-Dum was concerned, itwasnotexplosiveorchargedwithfulminatingorinflammablesubstancesandso Churchill had identified the wrong provision as being applicable. It should have been whether Dum-Dum Bullets Page 7 or not the wounds caused by the bullet uselessly aggravated the sufferings of disabled men, or rendered their death inevitable. This was wide open to interpretation and the British argued that without modification the standard (Mark II) bullet passed through the limbs or body without causing immediate collapse unless some vital part or important bone was struck. In Europeanwarfarethiswasofcomparativelylittleconsequence,ascivilisedmanismuch more susceptible to injury than savages. As a rule when a white man is wounded he has had enough, and is quite ready to drop out and go to the rear; but a savage, like the tiger, is not so impressionable, and will go on fighting even when desperately wounded. The effect of the bullet was therefore not useless; it was considered essential. In February 1898 Sir Howard Vincent, who had been the Director of the Criminal InvestigationintheMetbefore enteringpoliticsin1888,askedthe IndiaSecretary,LordGeorge Hamilton, whether it was true that the Queen'senemiesintheoperationson the North-West Frontier have obtained possessionofthelatestarmsof precision,andparticularlyofLee-MetfordmagazineriflesandDum-Dumbullets.Hamiltonrepliedthat:Theso-calledDum-Dumbullets,whicharenot explosivebullets,havebeenusedagainstthetroopsintherecentFrontier campaigns, and are probably part of a large quantity of ammunition captured from a convoy by the Afridis. Something about theDum-Dum name caught the public imagination and its notoriety started to grow asdidallkindsofrumoursoveritseffects.Alsoin February 1898 Lord Stanley of Alderley, who has the distinction of beingthefirstMuslim memberoftheHouseofLords,askedHer MajestysGovernmentwhethertheywilllayontheTableany surgical reports on the wounds of Piper Findlater and others caused by Dum-Dum bullets, so that the country may judge whether these are notcontrarytothespiritoftheConventionagainstexplosivebullets[and]whetherHer Afridi tribesmen Findlater Hamilton Dum-Dum Bullets Page 8 Majesty's Government sanctioned the issue of Dum-Dum bullets for military purposes. The story of Piper Findlater was being widely reported at the time. On 20 October 1897 during what was known as the Tirah expedition the Gordon Highlanders stormed an Afridi position on Dargai Heights. George Findlater was a junior piper and after being shot in the ankles he was unable to walk but he continued playing to encourage the battalion's advance. He was invalided home, found that he had become a national hero and awarded the Victoria Cross. Stanleycontinued:TheAfridissaythatwehaveusedpoisonedbullets.They consider that the bullets are poisoned in consequence of the very few recoveries from wounds that have been observed by them. And besides the injury done by the shreds of nickel, it is said that the lead becomes so [crushed] as to enter into and poison the system. If any of those whose primary duty it is to advance medical and surgical science, have wished for subjects whosepositionwouldensurethegreatestattentiontotheirwounds,theirdesirehasbeen fulfilled in the cases of two of the most popular men wounded in the Frontier War. I refer to the two Gordon pipers.One of these pipers, Milne, was hit byan honestLee-Metford or spherical bullet [implying that any other bullet must therefore be dishonest], and he has written to the papers to say that he was shot through the chest and through the lungs, but that he would soon be all right. The other piper, Findlater, was shot by a Dum-Dum bullet in both ankles, and it was said that his bones had been reduced to a pulp. It was not certain whether he had not suffered amputation, or might not still be exposed to that calamity. In fact, Findlaters wounds were nothing like as serious as was being claimed. He fully recovered, left the army and used his celebritytogoonthemusic-hallstagefromwhichheearned enough money to buy a farm. On the outbreak of World War I he rejoined the colours as a sergeant piper when the 9th Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders was formed in September 1914. He was wounded at Loos and again invalided home. He died in 1942 aged seventy. In any event the Under-Secretary of State for India, the Earl of Onslow, was unmoved and replied that: We have had no reportsonthewoundsofPiperFindlaterandotherscausedby Dum-Dum bullets. These bullets are not explosive at all, and their use is not contrary to the spiritofanyconventionorcustomofwar.NospecialsanctionhasbeengivenbyHer Majesty's Government for the use of those bullets, as none was asked for or required. Findlater in later life Dum-Dum Bullets Page 9 Neverthelessthelevelofmisinformationthatwascirculatingaboutthesupposed devastating effect of the Dum-Dum bullet was illustrated again when the subject came up for discussionintheHouseofCommonson1March1898.TheIndiaSecretarywasasked whether the specific quality of the Dum-Dum bullets supplied to the British troops to be usedagainsttheAfridisconsistsincrushingandpulverisingthebonesoastodefyall surgical skill employed in setting; in what respects are the Dum-Dum bullets less calculated than explosive bullets, to inflict incurable injury; and, what is the authority for the statement thattheDum-Dumbulletsareconsonantwithinternationallawortheusagesofcivilised warfare? Hamilton replied that: According to the information supplied to me, the effects of this bullet are not more serious (indeed, I believe, they are less serious) than those of the old SniderbulletnorthanthoseoftheMartini-Henrybullet.But,ontheotherhand,aswas clearly shown during the Chitral expedition, the Lee-Metford bullet frequently failed to attain the object with which all missiles are discharged in war, namely, that of disabling the enemy with the least possible suffering. The Dum-Dum bullet fulfils this purpose, as did the bullets previously used by the British Army, and fulfils it in the same way. When pressed on the wounding effect of the bullet he said that: There is no doubt that the so-called Dum-Dum bullet inflicts a more serious wound than a [Mark II] bullet from the Lee-Metford rifle, but not more so than the bullet previously in use. I believe anyone can convert the Lee-Metford bullet into a Dum-Dum bullet by simply flattening its head. Meanwhilemomentouseventshadbeentakingplaceonanothercontinent.Major-General Charles Gordon had been killed in Khartoum in 1885 and the Sudan was lost by the British to the forces of the Mahdi. In 1895 the British government agreed that Horatio Kitchiner, a Major-General in Egyptian service at the time, could mount a campaign to retake the Sudan and he formedtheAnglo-EgyptianNileExpeditionaryForceof25,000 men, 8,600 of whom were British. The campaign started in 1896 andinSeptember1898thefinaldecisivebattletookplaceat OmdurmanjustoutsideKhartoum.WithMaximmachine-guns, artillery,Lee-Metfordrifles(fortheBritish),andMartini-Henry andRemingtonrolling-blockrifles(fortheEgyptianand Sudanese), Kitchiners men mowed down the attacking Dervish army. It was an astonishing victory, albeit over less well-armed foe. Kitchiner Dum-Dum Bullets Page 10 However in February 1898 the Under-Secretary of State for War had been asked in the House of Commons whether his attention has been called to a report to the effect that the BritishtroopswiththeadvanceforceinEgypthavefounditnecessarytoaltertheLee-Metford bullet; and, if this report be correct, will he state why unsuitable bullets have been issued to the troops, to what extent the issue has been made, and the nature of the alteration? It was the Financial Secretary to the War Office, J oseph Powell-Williams, who replied that: It has for some time past been recognised that the .303 bullet is deficient in stopping power, and a slight modification has been made on the spot in the bullets issued to the troops in Egypt, which will, it is believed, remove this defect. Onthespotmodifications suggeststhatMarkIIbulletswere converted by flattening the head but aproblemwiththeDum-Dumbullet hadalreadybeenidentified.Because thecupro-nickeljacketnolonger completelycoveredtheleadcoreof the bullet there was the potential for it tostripawayasitwentdownthe barrelandthis could occur even withfactory-maderounds.TheordnancefactoryatWoolwichin England had therefore designed two expanding .303 calibre bullets, one of which had a 3/8 inch deep hole in its nose. This created a round-nose hollow-point bullet and after trials it was this that was adopted as the Cartridge S.A. Ball .303 inch Cordite Mark III. A few months and a fewmodificationslateritwasrenamedtheMarkIVfollowedby Mark V. To distinguish them from the modifications made in India they were all known as Woolwich bullets. ThebodyresponsibleforoverseeingBritishgovernmentspendingandproposing changes in taxation to meet demand at the time was the Ways and Means Committee. During ameetingon14March1898J ohnDillon,aformidableIrishpoliticianwithatalentfor upsetting ministers, said that: I am very anxious to call the attention of the Under Secretary of State for War with reference to the Dum-Dum bullets. We are informed that they have British soldiers with Lee-Metford rifles at Omdurman Powell-Williams Dum-Dum Bullets Page 11 been served out in large quantities to the new force which has been formed for service in West Africa, a force which may be most unhappily brought into conflict with the troops of a civilisedPowerandhedrewattentiontothesumof158,000(equivalenttoabout15 milliontoday)allocatedforammunition.TheCommitteeChairman,J amesLowther,said that:Thatisnotfortheso-calledDum-Dumbullets,butfor ammunition made in England, and not ammunition made in India. Powell-Williams added that: These are the ordinary bullets. When asked to say that none of this money is to be spent on Dum-Dum bulletsPowell-Williamsreplied:Yes.Dillonstuckwithitand asked: Is the hon. Member in a position to assure the Committee that none of this money will be spenteither in supplying the troops in India with Dum-Dum bullets, or issuing them to the troops who havegonetoWestAfrica?Powell-Williamsreplied:Thatis precisely the assurance I would give the Committee. The bullets to which the hon. Member refers are made in India. Dillon would not give up and said: But is it or is it not the fact, and it is important that it should be stated, that these Dum-Dum bullets have been served out to the British troops sent to West Africa? It has been stated positively in the Press, and it is very important that we should have an authoritative statement from the War Office, as to whether that is or is not the case, for it is going to be a matter of discussion in the French Chamber in the next few days. Powell-Williams replied: I think I disposed of that point when I stated that the bullets included in the Supplementary Estimate are the ordinary bullets. Dillon was asking the wrong question because the ordinary bullets that were now intended for issue to the army outside India, including the part of it that was with the Anglo-Egyptian Nile Expeditionary Force, were the hollow-point Woolwich bullets but there was an obvious reluctance to say so. It may have been that Dillons abrasive style induced a natural disinclination to give an unreserved answer. Alternatively the British government was well aware that the wildly exaggerated claims of the injuries caused by the Dum-Dum bullet in India were arousing something of an international furore and it was anxious that a similar frenzied head of steam did not develop over the effects caused by the successor to the Mark II everywhere else. If that was the case then for quite a while it was successful. Ten days later, on 24 March, in the House of Commons Dillon was back on the trail again and asked who is responsible for the issue of Dum-Dum bullets to the troops in India; and whether the India Office has any information as to the effect of these bullets on men or Dillon Dum-Dum Bullets Page 12 animals? This time it was Hamilton who replied that: These bullets were issued by order of the Government of India. No further sanction for their issue was necessary, nor was any such sanction either asked for or given; but Her Majesty's Government were fully informed as to theproceedingsoftheGovernmentofIndia,andsawnoreasonforquestioningtheir propriety. Dillon then asked whether Dum-Dum bullets have been served out to any troops directly under the control of the War Office; and who is responsible for the supply of these bullets to troops serving in West Africa? and was told that: The Dum-Dum bullet has not been issued to any troops directly under the control of the War Office. On 7 J uly 1898 Dillon got a little closer when he asked whether a special bullet has been manufactured to be used by the British troops in the Khartoum expedition; if so, on what grounds has it been found necessary to supply the troops with a special bullet? It was Powell-Williams who replied that: No special bullet has been manufactured for use in Egypt. The bullet sent is that which has been adopted for general use in the Army after experiment and medical report. When asked Is that the Dum-Dum bullet? he replied No, Sir, it is not. Of course, Powell-Williams and Hamilton were being quite accurate in their answers. They werejustbeingeconomicalwiththeactualit.InterestinglyTheRiverWar,Churchills book about the Khartoum expedition published in 1899, makes no mention of the kind of ammunition used by the British and it is tempting to speculate that this was because he had regrets over the controversy that he and a few others had unintentionally helped to start. More Fuel Is Added European armies began to complain about the Dum-Dum bullet almost as soon as it was introduced, fearing no doubt that the rumours about it could be true and that one day it may be used against them. In April 1898 the critics were given medical support when Paul von Bruns, a professor of surgery attheUniversityofTbingeninsouthwestGermanyandSurgeon-General in the Wrttemberg Army Medical Service, gave an address to a meeting of the GermanChirurgical (Surgical) Societyduring which he suggested that, as a result of experiments he had conducted, the use of Dum-Dum bullets in warfare was brutally inhumane. Von Bruns Dum-Dum Bullets Page 13 Surgeon-Colonel William Flack Stevenson, Professor of Military Surgery at the Army Medical School, Netley, responded by writing in the British Medical Journal on 21 May that the way this address was being reported in the press, and the questions being asked in the House of Commons, are sure to conjure up before the minds of hysterical persons who have nomeansofknowingthefactsofthecasethenotionthattheEnglishGovernmenthas selected for use in the English army a small-arm projectile which in the spirit, if not the letter, contravenes the agreement come to at the Congress of St. Petersburg, in 1868, not to use explosive shells of less than 400 grammes in weight. As a matter of fact, there is no doubt that the effects of the Dum-Dum bullet have been exaggerated. ...The Snider bullet was probably the most destructive small-arm projectile ever used in an army but the inhumanity of its employment in war was never suggested. When travelling at the same velocity [as the Martini-Henrybullet]itproducedmoreextensivefracturesofbonesthananysmall-bore bullet, Dum-Dum or other. ... I have made experiments with Dum-Dum bullets; I have seen our men who have been hit with them on the Indian frontier, and I have received numerous letters from medical officers who saw and treated injuries in the Tirah campaign, and I am convincedthatanexaggeratedideaoftheireffectsexists.AtthetimeStevensonwas considered the British expert on the subject and he had already written the definitive Wounds in War The Mechanism of their Production and their Treatment which had been published in 1897. AlexanderOgson(laterSir),theRegiusProfessorofSurgeryattheUniversityof Aberdeen and Surgeon in Ordinary (a consultant) to Queen Victoria, had been present when von Bruns gave his address. He had a keen interest in militarysurgeryandhadassistedduringseveralcampaigns,being awardedtheEgyptiancampaignmedalandtheKhediveofEgypts Bronze Star. He managed to get hold of a copy of von Brunss final paper entitledOntheEffectsofLead-pointedProjectiles(Dum-DumBullets), whichcalledontheGermanmilitaryauthoritiestotoobtain,by international agreement, such a modification of the St. Petersburgh [sic] Convention that only allows such small-bore leaded bullets be employed in war as are wholly steel mantled, or at least mantled at their tip. This was too much for Ogson and in September 1898 he decided to enter the fray by pointing out that: VonBrunssexperiments were madewith the German Mauser bullets, some of which were altered by removing part of the mantle at the apex so as to imitate as Ogson Dum-Dum Bullets Page 14 nearly as possible what the Dum-Dum bullets were supposed by him to be. But it is important to observe that von Bruns has evidently never seen or experimented with the genuine Dum-Dum bullet. ... [his] experiments were not made with Dum-Dum bullets at all, but with soft-nosedMauserbullets,suchasaremanufacturedforGermansportsmanforusewiththe Mauser rifle in shooting big game. ... Hence it is clear that von Brunss experiments were madewithprojectilestoounliketheDum-Dumtojustifyusinatonceacceptinghis conclusions as being true of it. The government strategy of keeping quiet about the Woolwich bullet, if indeed that was what it was, came to an abrupt end in March 1899 when von Bruns published his On the EffectsoftheMostRecentBulletsinUseintheEnglishArmy(Hollow-FrontedBullets). In essencetheconclusionwasthatcomparedwiththeleaden-pointedbulletstheyproduce decidedly less severe injuries of the soft parts (flesh) but equal them in destructive power should they strike bone. In response it was once again pointed out that the comparisons with leaden-pointed bullets were done with the Mauser bullet and not the Dum-Dum. A Crusade Against British Rule In Africa International politics now played their part. Tsar NicholasII of Russiaproposed a conference on arms limitation in August 1898. All kinds of ulterior motives have since been attributed to the Tsar, including his need to reduce spending on conventional weapons so that he could increase the size of the imperial fleet. Whatever the reason, on 18 May 1899 the conferenceopenedinTheHagueintheNetherlandswithtwenty-sixnationsrepresented. ThreeCommissionsweresetuptogo throughtheproposedsubjectsfor discussionwithasub-commissionofthe FirstCommissiongiventhetopicof: Theinterdictionoftheemploymentin armies and fleets of new firearms of every description and of new explosives, as well aspowdermorepowerfulthanthekinds usedatpresent,bothforgunsand cannonstoexamine.Thepurpose, explained Colonel J . Gilinsky of Russia, was not to proscribe new inventions as such, but of Hague Peace Conference Dum-Dum Bullets Page 15 agreeinguponamoratorium,fixingatermduringwhichexistingmaterialwasnottobe replaced, based on the Tsars desire to mitigate the heavy burdens imposed on the taxpayer. Thefocusofthediscussionsshouldthereforehavebeenonfindingawayof implementing such a cost-saving moratorium but instead at the first meeting Colonel Arnold Knzli of Switzerland almost immediately proposed a ban on the Dum-Dum bullet which, he said, caused incurablewounds. TheDutch representative,General Den Beer Poortugael, jumped in and said that he had been specifically briefed by his government to ask for the absoluteprohibitionontheuseofDum-Dumbulletsandsimilarprojectilesbecausethey burstinthebodyandarenotnecessary.TheBritishfoundthemselvesambushedand unprepared. Even the results of the tests conducted by von Bruns were being exaggerated and theleadingBritishrepresentative,GeneralSirJ ohnArdagh,triedtoexplainthatthe experiments were flawed anyway but by now the stories of how the Dum-Dum burst in the body causing incurable wounds had developed a life of their own. Ardagh was Director of Military Intelligence at the War Office at the time but during hiscareerhehadseenserviceinbothIndiaandAfrica.He soughtdirectionsfromhomeandproducedTheBritish DeclarationontheDumdumBullet.Afterexplainingthe historyofthesubjectitsaidthat:Thecommitteewhich investigatedthequestion[ofbulletswithsufficientstopping powerforuseoutsideIndia]recommendedtwobullets,one which proved to make more severe wounds than the other. Her Majestys Government, however, rejected the one making the more severe wounds and decided to adopt the less destructive bullet,nowknownastheMarkIV,asgivingtheminimum stoppingeffectnecessary.Thisbullethasasmallcylindrical cavityinthehead,overwhichthehardmetalenvelopeis turned down. There is nothing new in this cavity in the head of the bullet. It existed in the Snider bullet, with which Her Majestys troops were armed for many years a bullet which was perfectly well known to all the Powers of Europe, which wasactually in use in Her MajestysarmyatthedateoftheSt.PetersburgConventionof1868,andtowhich, nevertheless, no objection was ever raised on humanitarian grounds. The Indian Government for the same reasons adopted the so-called Dum Dum bullet, in which a very small portion of theheadoftheleadenbulletisnotcoveredbythehardmetalenvelope.HerMajestys Ardagh Dum-Dum Bullets Page 16 Government are unable to admit that a bullet which has been adopted by them as possessing theminimumofdestructiveeffectnecessary,canbeconsideredasinflictingunnecessary sufferingandinviewofthefactthatuntilrecentlyallriflesofallPowersfiredbullets consisting of lead without a covering, and that the bullet with a cavity in the head was the bullet in use in Her Majestys army at the date of the St. Petersburg Convention, and for many years subsequently, they are equally unable to admit that there is anything in either the exposure of a small portion of lead or the existence of a cavity, to justify the condemnation of either of these methods of construction. The experiments conducted in this country led to the conclusion that the wounds inflicted by these bullets are not more severe if so severe as thewoundsinflictedbylargerbulletsfiredfrompreviousrifles:thereforeHerMajestys Government, while entirely sympathetic with the desire to avoid the use of missiles which inflict wounds of unnecessary severity, are unable to admit that this is involved by either of the above methods of construction. It was also pointed out that the Swiss and the Portuguese used bullets that were the equal of the Dum-Dum without voices being raised in protest but this made little impression and it gradually dawned on the British that the reason had nothing to do with the European powers having concern for the wellbeing of their fellow man. Instead, this was the period of history now known as the Scramble for Africa (generally seen as starting in earnest as a result of the Berlin Conference in 1884 and of which Kitchiners expedition was a part) with Belgium,Germany,Spain,France,Italyand Portugal also staking their claim and some if not all ofthemsawanopportunitytoscorepointsoff Great Britain to their own advantage. The Russians ontheotherhandhadtheireyeselsewhere.To them,thiswasallpartofTheGreatGame,the competitionforpoliticalinfluenceincountries borderingtheNorth-Westfrontierincluding Afghanistanwhich,iftheBritishlost,wouldgive RussiadirectaccesstoIndiatheJ ewelintheBritishCrown.Thesubjectwashighly topicalandwouldbecomethebackgroundtothenovelKimbyRudyardKipling,first published in serialised form in a monthly periodical in 1900 and as a best-selling book in 1901. Anything which could put even a small crack in the monolith that was Great Britains European delegates at the Berlin Conference on Africa Dum-Dum Bullets Page 17 colonial power would benefit the Russians. As Ardagh saw it, the whole discussion ... was a crusade against British rule in Africa, orchestrated by Russia. On 29 J uly 1899 the wording adopted by the full conference, drawn up largely by Russia, Romania and France despite the objections of Great Britain and the United States, was: The Contracting Parties agree to abstain from the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope which does not entirely cover thecore,orispiercedwithincisions.ThepresentDeclarationisonlybindingforthe Contracting Powers in the case of a war between two or more of them.It shall cease to be binding from the time when, in a war between the Contracting Parties, one of the belligerents is joined by a non-Contracting Power. ItiswidelybelievedtodaythatoncetheDeclarationwasmadeitautomatically applied to all parties at the conference but this was not the case. Great Britain continued to argue its corner and, along with the United States, Portugal and a few others, declined to be a ContractingPower,officiallyonthegroundsthatthediscussionshadbeenbasedon erroneousexperimentswhichdrewinvalidconclusions.Unofficiallyitwasbecausethe British knew that they had been well and truly outmanoeuvred in a course of action aimed directly at them and didnt like it. The Dilemma In October 1898 George Wyndham had taken over the post of Under-Secretary of State for War and as soon as the conference started in The Hague rumours about what was beingdiscussedwerewidespread.Evenbeforethewordingofthe final Declaration had been agreed, on 11 J uly 1899 Wyndham was asked in the House of Commons whether he will consent to lay upon the Table of the House accounts of the surgical experiments as to the effects of the Mark IV missile, on the basis of which experiments the bullet is now being served out to British soldiers sent on service to South Africa; and if he can state whether the reported condemnation of the Dum-Dum bullet by the Peace Conference at the Hague has beenofficiallybroughtunderthenoticeoftheWarOffice authorities.Wyndhamrepliedthat:TheMarkIVhasbeenthe Wyndham Dum-Dum Bullets Page 18 service bullet for the British Army since February, 1898, and, as such, has been issued to our troops in South Africa. I cannot lay before the House reports either of the experiments which ledtotheadoptionofthatbulletorofmorerecentexperiments,sincetheycontain confidential information. These experiments were not merely, as the hon. Member suggests, ofasurgicalcharacter.Theywereconductedtosolveanumberofphysicalproblems,in consideringwhichthehumanitarianaspectofthequestionwasnotleftoutofsight.Our representatives at The Hague have reported the proceedings of the Conference from time to time; but these interim reports have necessarily been partial and inconclusive. When asked: Is it not a fact that this bullet has been constructed with a view to expand on striking like the Dum-Dum bullets? Wyndham replied with what has since come to be regarded as a classic of its kind: The bullet has been constructed to achieve a number of objects, one of which is that its calibre should be greater later on than when it leaves the muzzle of the rifle. Two days later Wyndham told the House of Commons that: The Mark IV ammunition was used by several battalions of British troops at Omdurman, and was reported on favourably. The reason for the request for information about South Africa (and undoubtedly the motivation behind the resolve of the Dutch to weaken the morale and effectiveness of the British army by getting a prohibition on Dum-Dum and Woolwich bullets) was because of increasing tensions there between the British and the Dutch settlers (Boers). There had already been one war (1880-81) andtheSecondBoerWarstartedon11October1899.It descended into a guerrilla war which lasted until May 1902 and it cost about 75,000 lives of whom about 22,000 were Britishsoldiers.Thewarstartedonlytenweeksafterthe Declaration in The Hague and during the build-up to it the BritishfoundthemselvespresentedwithadilemmabecausebythenitwastheMarkV Woolwich bullet that was on general issue. The Boers were not party to the Declaration but on the other hand they were neither tribesman nor savages. With all the uproar over Dum-Dum bullets still hanging in the air, caused not least by Great Britains refusal to accept the Declaration, the British government realised that the Boers would be handed a propaganda gift if it left the Mark V in use. After much discussion andsoulsearchingitbowedtotheinevitableandreluctantlywithdrewit.Wyndhamwas asked on 23 March 1900 whether either explosive or expanding bullets have been sent to South Africa for the use of the troops there or for any other purpose? He replied: The bullet Dum-Dum Bullets Page 19 in use in South Africa for the rifle is the Mark II solid bullet. Mark V bullets were recalled, and have never been used by the troops. Neither have any Dum-Dum bullets been used by the troops. This last statement was perhaps a little naive because the Mark II was still just as susceptible to improvised modification as it had been during the Chitral expedition. Each side accused the other of using Dum-Dum bullets at one time or another during the war. The Mark VI bullet introduced in 1904 was similar to the Mark II but the jacket was made thinner so that it was more likely to break up on impact. A second peace conference took place in The Hague between J uly and October 1907 and one result, under the heading of MeansofInjuringtheEnemy,SiegesandBombardments,wasthedeclarationthat:In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden - ... To employarms,projectiles,ormaterialcalculatedtocauseunnecessarysufferingbutthis added little to what already existed as far as bullets were concerned. Getting Around The Declarations InAugust1907GreatBritainannouncedthatitwouldadheretotheHague Declaration but only after it had realised that the inventiveness of man was not likely to be frustrated by a mere declaration. Development had started on the Mark VII Spitzer (pointed) bullet which was finally introduced in 1912. The Mark VII had a muzzle velocity of 2,440 ft/sandwasHaguecompliantinthatitwasfully-jacketedbutappearanceswerehighly deceptive. Described in 1915 by Dr. J . Hartnell Beavis, a former director of the British Field Hospital for Belgium, as an ingenious advanceontheDum-Dum,itwas specificallymadetobetail-heavy. TherewasnomentionintheHague Declaration that the central core had to be made of nothing but lead and so the front third of the jacket was filled with aluminium,woodpulporcompressed paper.Thisgreatlyincreasedits tendency to deform or topple (turn end overend)whenithitsomethingand this,whencombinedwithaneffectknownasbulletcavitationwhichwasanatural Dum-Dum Bullets Page 20 consequenceoftheincreasedbulletspeed,considerablyamplifiedtheinternalinjuries caused. It was likely to pass through its primary target and strike another standing behind but this was not considered to be a problem as long as it did sufficient damage to the first. Indeed, it was preferable that it did the same to the second. The need for a disabling round similar (if not worse) in effect to the Dum-Dum and the Woolwich bullets was satisfied and there was no international conference in the offing at which a form of words could be found which would prohibit the Mark VII as well. After Beavis let the cat out of the bag it was claimed that the Mark VII was a Dum-Dum bullet in all but name but this was dismissed with a simple statement that the bullet compliedwiththewordingofthe1899Declaration.Nobodywaspreparedtobeso unpatriotic as to pursue the matter because by then Great Britain was at war with Germany, a country that was paying scant attention to the other measures supposedly prohibited as a result of the two Hague Conferences including the use of poison gas. It also did notstoptheBritishfromcomplaining, with staggering hypocrisy, that the pointed bullet (Spitzgeschoss) being used by the Germans caused more extensive injuries than the Dum-Dum bullet ever did. The Mark VII bullet would see Great Britain through two world wars with few people even today having any idea of why controversy could so easily have engulfed it. The clever internal construction was hidden inside a jacket and so what was out of sight remained out of mind. Police Ammunition All of this was of little or no interest to the British police. No one suggested for a momentthattheHagueDeclarationsappliedtopoliceammunitionandpoliceforces continuedtousewhatevertheyhadfortheweaponsonissue.Foralongtimeafterthe outbreak of World War I the most common (but by no means the only) weapon found in police armouries was the Webley & Scott .32 self-loading pistol for which the ammunition just happened to be jacketed (.32 ACP). In the 1950s the weapons available in many forces depended on what was left over from the pistols or revolvers surrendered during World War Dum-Dum Bullets Page 21 II and not handed back (see The Wartime Years 1939 - 1945) although the Webley & Scott .380 Mark IV revolver was usually the preferred purchased weapon and this fired an all-lead round-nose bullet.In1972theHomeOfficeScientificAdvisoryBranch (HOSAB)publishedanInformationNote(No.1/72) recommendingwhatweaponspoliceforcesshouldadopt.This attemptatstandardisationwaslargelyattheinstigationofthe Police Federation and it noted that: The selected gun must have sufficientstrikingenergytoensurethattheopponentis incapacitatedbutnotsooverpoweredastocauseexcessive penetration leading to the possibility of wounding someone else beyondthetargetortoaseriousriskof ricochets. The nominated weapon intended as General Purpose Police Revolver was the Smith and Wesson Model 10 MilitaryandPoliceRevolverin.38SpecialCalibrewitha4inchheavy barrel.This fired an all-lead round-nose bullet with no hard envelope and therewasnodiscussionanywhereabouttheneedforittobeHague compliant. The first mention of the Hague Conventions, although not directly, in connection with police ammunition came in 1985. After several incidents in which the standard police bullet did not seem to have the desired effect: The [ACPO] J oint Standing Committee on the Police UseofFirearmsaskedtheHomeOfficeScientificResearchandDevelopmentBranch (SRDB) [as HOSAB had been renamed] to investigate handgun ammunition for the police service.Thechiefrequirementswerethattheammunitionshouldoffergreaterstopping powerthancurrentlyavailablefromthe158grainroundnoseleadbullet,bereadilyand cheaply available, comply with the spirit ofInternational Conventions, and be compatible withtheSmithandWessonmodel10revolver.Theresultingreport(No.24/85) recommended that the police change to the 125 grain semi-jacketed semi-wadcutterconfigurationbutintroducingitprovedtobeaproblemfor those forces that used 9mm self-loading pistols. Weapons standardisation hadbeengivenupasalostcausesomeyearsearlierandno9mm ammunition of that description existed and so theyadopted the nearest equivalent which was 95 grain jacketed soft-point. Both rounds would have been described as Dum-Dum Bullets Page 22 beingDum-Dum-likeacenturyearlierandasfarasisknownnonormalandhealthy human has had their arm ripped off as a consequence. In1988attentionturnedtorifleammunition.Therecommendedriflein1972had been the Service L39A1 Target Rifle, produced by the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield, and modified by Parker-Hale Limited of Birmingham. This became known as the Enfield Enforcer and it had been chosen because many police officers were ex-servicemen and they wouldhavebeenfamiliarwiththemechanism already.TheammunitionwasNATOfull-metal-jacket7.62mmasprovidedfortheServiceSniper.Ashadbeenthecasewith handguns,standardisationofrifleshaddisappearedby1988andtherewereavarietyof makes in different calibres being used by forces. In particular, some forces had adopted an intermediate calibre rifle in either .223 or .243. A report (No. 12/88) by SRDB noted that the policy of successive Home Secretaries towards ammunition has been to comply with the spirit of the Hague Convention, even in peacetime,[and]thechoiceofrifleammunitionhasbeenrestrictedtothosefullmetal jacketedtypeswhichsupposedly[myitalics]showlittleifanyexpansionorbreakupon impact....ThetypeofammunitionthatsatisfiedtheHagueConventionandiscurrently specified for police use may have serious operational limitations because of its potential for over-penetration, and that only bullets with a soft point are likely to satisfy the requirement. Thepolicerequirementmaybesatisfiedbyseveraldifferentcalibreweaponsusingthe appropriate weight soft point bullet, the final selection resting on the engagement distance anticipated by the police force in the knowledge of their particular environment. Once again, this bullet would have been described as being Dum-Dum-like a century earlier. Theobviousgapleftbytherebeingnoprovisionrelatingspecificallytopolice ammunition was finally filled in 1990 when the BasicPrinciplesontheUseofForceand Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials was adopted at the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders. In its GeneralProvisionsitrequiresthat:Governmentsandlaw enforcementagenciesshalladoptandimplementrulesand regulations on the use of force and firearms against persons by law enforcementofficials.UnderitsSpecialProvisionsitreads: Rules and regulations on the use of firearms by law enforcement officials should include guidelines that ... prohibit the use of those Dum-Dum Bullets Page 23 firearms and ammunition that cause unwarranted injury or present an unwarranted risk. This deliberately avoids the wording used in the Hague Declaration and does not specify which particularbullettypesshouldbeprohibitedtheonlyrequirementbeingthateachstate identifies which firearms and ammunition it considers cause unwarranted injury or risk and therefore cannot be used by its police. The International Red Cross, in its study of international humanitarian law in 2005, found that several States have decided that for domestic law-enforcement purposes, outside armed conflict, in particular where it is necessary to confront an armed person in an urban environment or crowd of people, expanding bullets may be used by police to ensure that the bullets used do not pass through the body of a suspect into another person and to increase the chance that once hit, the suspect is instantly prevented from firing back. This was not meant to be in any way critical. It was a straightforward statement of fact but that is not to say that the subject isnolongercontroversial.Whenthe Swisspoliceannounceditsintentionof adopting an expanding bullet in 2006, the localbranchofAmnestyInternational objected.DismissingtheUNBasic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms as though they were irrelevant it said that: We stillthinkthatasthesebulletsareprohibitedforuseinwartimethatSwitzerland,asthe depositary state of the Geneva Conventions should not introduce them. The Swiss Medical Association also expressed its concerns about new ammunition that causes permanent injury or which results in an increase in life-threatening injuries. However a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Police said that Germany has been usingexpanding bullets for about four years and the mortality rate has not risen as a result. ... The bullets in use at the moment generally pass through the body. ... Expanding bullets should not do this ... [and] this will avoid the possibility of two or three people being struck by the same bullet. If the use of expanding bullets by the police can still generate excitement, their use by the armed forces does so even more. However, battles where an army in uniform has a stand-up face-to-face fight in fields and open country with the uniformed army of another state are the exception. The combat environment today is far more likely to be urban with the enemy, many of whom are no less fanatical than their predecessors, concealing themselves amongst, Dum-Dum Bullets Page 24 and dressing like, the local population. This increases the potential for collateral damage withinnocentpartiesbeinghitbybulletswhichover-penetrateorricochet.Militaryforcesarequestioning why they are restricted in the kind of ammunition they canusewhentheconditionssurroundingsuchuseare not that different from those encountered by the police. Insomecasestheyareevenworkingalongsidethe policebutasolutionisfarfromsimple.EveniftheBritishgovernmentweretojust unilaterally announce that it no longer intended to apply the Hague Declarations to its armed forcesbecauseofthechangeinthewaywarsarebeingfoughtthereisnowamore formidable obstacle to overcome. AccordingtotheRomeStatuteofthe International Criminal Court adopted in Rome in 1998:AnInternationalCriminalCourt("the Court")isherebyestablished.Itshallbea permanent institution and shall have the power to exercise its jurisdiction over persons for the most serious crimes of international concern, as referred to in this Statute, and shall be complementary to national criminal jurisdictions. After affirming that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go unpunished it then, without questioning whether the wording of the 1899 Hague Declaration was still relevant given the imaginative ways that have since beenfoundaroundit,specificallymakes:Employing bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, suchasbulletswithahardenvelopewhichdoesnot entirelycoverthecoreorispiercedwithincisionsa War Crime (Article 8 Paragraph xix). As we have seen, the British government has been recommending the ammunition thatcanbeusedbythepolicesince1972.InSeptember1998theHomeOfficePolice ScientificDevelopmentBranch(PSDB,asSRDBhadbeenrenamed)publishedits Performance Specification for 9mm 95 Grain Jacketed Soft Point Ammunition for Police Use andthisemphasisedthathollow-pointammunitionwasnotacceptable.However,in British soldiers working with Afghan Police Dum-Dum Bullets Page 25 September 2007 the PSDB reviewed the 1998 specification and produced its Comparison of 9mm95grainJacketedSoftPointwithSelectedHollowPointAmmunition. Strangely for a document of such importance it makes no mention of the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms as being relevant despite quoting from both the 1899 and 1907 Hague Declarationswhichitadmitsareonlystrictlyapplicabletoarmedconflictsbetween participating nations. It does make the point that the police in both Finland and Sweden had adopted jacketed hollow-point bullets after extensive trials and intensive scrutiny to ensure that it complied with international humanitarian law and the PSDB conducted its own trials to reachtheconclusionthatconsiderationshouldbegiventotheuseofhollowpoint ammunition as an appropriate configuration for police firearms operations. Fere Libenter Homines Id Quod Volunt Credunt The story of extraordinary phenomenon that was the short-lived career of the Dum-Dumbullet,fromitsriseasasolutiontoaveryreallife-threateningproblem,toits questionablenotorietyanditssubsequentdenunciationasaresultofdubiousmedical experiments followed by its fall as a victim of international political intrigue has long since beenforgotten.Today,realityasfarasDum-Dumbulletsareconcernedhasbeenalmost totallyreplacedbyalarmistmythology.WhentheMetannouncedinMay2011thatit intended to change from 95 grain soft-point to 124 grain hollow-point ammunition the force had to stoop to the level of arguing that the bullets were not Dum-Dum. The days when a sensible and informed discussion can take place seem to be as far away as ever. Note: If you have any information on developments to do with police firearms in your force/area please contact mike.policehistory@yahoo.com. Mike Waldren Men are nearly always willing to believe what they wish [to believe] (Julius Caesar 101 44 BC)