CHEMICAL WARFARE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20909, 17 July 1933, Page 7

CHEMICAL WARFARE.

TO TKB EDITOR OF THB IRS3S. Sir,—There is no getting away from the fact, responsible quarters arc making very little effort to prevent the frightful Dossibilities of modern chemical warfare. This fearful technique introduced during the 1914-18 world war, has since so developed that one is forced to the conclusion that no act is too cruel and no invention tor snufling out the spark of life, too inhuman. All nations are studying this cruel and effective war device. According to, reliable authorities, defence against these attacks is. practically impossible. As an illustration, Green Cross may be named, or dry land drowning, as it is also called. Alter it is inhaled, intense irritation is immediately set up; and the lungs arc finally filled with blood to cause death. This torture may last several hours before the inevitable end. Diphenyleyanarsine, greatly improved since the world war, is of similar type to Green Cross, and according to Lord Halsbury, 40 tons would suffice to destroy the population of London. A respectable firm has the capacity to produce one hundred tons of this poison daily. Even the people seeking refuge in cellars and other underground places have been doomed by the penetrating qualities of certain gas. Time bombs, to explode at intervals ranging from one to 48 hours, await the return of fugitives from the first sign of danger. A mixture of one part of arsenic gas with 10 million parts of air. puts a man out within a minute. Yet the world sits unperturbed while manufacture continues and while we continue to believe a repetition of 191418 impossible.—Yours, etc., JUSTICE. July 15, 1933.