[boblamoreaux]

Many thanks for your reply, Eric. I do have the Maartens KNIL book (being hampered by not having proficiency in any language but English and a smattering of Spanish), I have been unable to appreciate the entire book. I did manage to translate some of the material on van Karner (who also made flare guns). The 7.62 Russian caliber was chosen because of the large surplus of that ammo in U.S. stores, made for the Russians during World War I, but not shipped. (I think I got that from the KNIL book.) I wonder if those 400-500 machine guns were the "remanufactured" Vickers. My information came from two sources, the first mention being in "Exporting Arms: The Federal Arms Exports Administration" by Murray S. Stedman, Jr., the second being an article by James M. Ludlow in the Department of State Bulletin, Vol. X, No. 261 (June 24, 1944), pp. 576-588 entitled "Control of the International Traffic in Arms". The Stedman book (p. 103) states: At the request of the Department of State, the Stafford Ordnance Corporation was investigated by the Department of Justice during the latter half of 1942. The corporation had been formed under New York laws with the stated purpose of disposing of more than 450 Vickers machine guns and parts, with a stated value of $575,000. The guns had originally been purchased as scrap from the Government at auction in 1935 for a nominal sum as World War I surplus. Some 350 of the guns were sold to the Chinese Government in 1938 and the remainder were being reconditioned for sale to other customers. It was learned by the F.B.I. that the corporation was negotiating for sale of the guns to the Lend-Lease authorities. Inasmuch as some of the principals of the corporation were known to have been engaged previously in the sale of war materials to South American and to Spain, a thorough investigation was made and it was found that no Federal violation had occurred." The Ludlow article indicates that some 400 of the remanufactured Vickers guns were sold to the N.P.C. and arrived in the N.E.I. in time to be captured by the Japanese. He suggested that it was just as well, as the remanufactured guns did not function properly. By the way, the Public Record Office (Great Britain) has some interesting material on both N.P.C. purchases in the U.S.A. as well as material transfered to the Dutch for use in the N.E.I., from material received by the British in Lend-Lease. If you are interested, I would be willing to share this material with you.