Soap In Ammunition Boxes.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 14, 1912:
"Graft" the Real Cause of Turkey's Disaster, Says German Officer.
    BERLIN, Nov. 13.— The reasons for the breakdown of the Turkish Army before the invaders are brought to light in a letter from Capt Persius, the war correspondent of the Tageblatt. Writing from Uskub, after visiting the battlefield of Kumanova, says he found on the persons of the fallen Turkish infantrymen numbers of blank cartridges and also cartridges of the old German rifles used in 1871. He also drew the swords of some of the fallen Ottoman cavalrymen and found them unsharpened and blunt, and it was the same with the bayonets of the infantryman.
    He saw a battery of field guns which had been captured by the Servians. The sights were fixed at 2,500 yards, but the barrels were only slightly discolored by powder. He was told that when the Turkish gunners opened their reserve ammunition boxes they found them filled with soap.