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of one of the workshops six girls at work, yet he did not take the trouble to enter and see the conditions under which the work was being carried out, or remind Knowles of the precautions which were required by the Home Office, and which he and Mr. Dawkins had shown him in December, 1921, at the works of the Premier Aluminium Casting Co., Ltd.
It was in evidence that the correspondence of the Premier Aluminium Casting Co., Ltd., was conducted by Mr. Dawkins and in reply to Knowles' letter of February 20th, 1922, he sent the following:—
February 21st; 1922.
"Mr. L. K. Knowles,
"Messrs. G. H. Yates, Ltd.,
"Groveland Road,
"Tipton."Dear Sir,
"We are in receipt of your letter of the 20th inst., regarding the small cartridges which you are dealing with, and would remind you that in your contract you undertook to do this breaking down, and while we shall be quite pleased to give you any assistance we can, we wish it to be distinctly understood that this is not our part of the business, and must ask you to carry it through successfully in accordance with the terms of the arrangement.
"Yours faithfully,
"P.S.—With reference to Mr. Andrews’ call about this matter, he informs us that you are now extracting the bullet, and leaving the lead and copper clean, at 1s. 6d. per cwt., instead of muffling it as you originally proposed."
It is clear that Mr. Andrews told Mr. Dawkins about the new method adopted by Knowles, and yet, in writing the last-mentioned letter, he also failed to remind Knowles of the precautions which he must take in order to comply with the Home Office requirements, and which had already been shown to him as aforesaid.
On March 6th, 1922, twenty-four girls were in the said workshop engaged in breaking down the said ammunition by the said new method. This of necessity caused some of the gunpowder to fall into the boxes in which the bullets fell and the rest of it was scattered over the table, the clothing of the girls and the floor. The stove in the centre of the said workshop was lighted and from, time to time a man opened its door to put in or take out tools employed in soldering operations.
Suddenly, the explosion occurred.
