AN ATTEMPT TO REACH THE TRUTH ABOUT GAS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1938, Page 26

AN ATTEMPT TO REACH THE TRUTH ABOUT GAS

Civilian Fears Are Not Well Founded But the Real Test is Yet to Come

r)N April 22, 1915, the prevailing 1 wind over the French fields was iErom the east, writes Hanson Baldwin \ in ihe "New York Times." The Canadians and the French and British colonial troops in the trenches around Ypres were resting or were asleep: there was no "big push" on and only . the desultory, routine shelling of the Western Front disturbed their rest. Suddenly some of the soldiers on the firing steps noticed great thickening, clouds above No Man's Land rolling before the easterly wind towards

has stemmed the almost universal horror of gas and gas warfare? which has now grown—fertilised by Sunday supplement fables and sensational nonsense in many books «md magazines— info an international psychosis. The fear of gas has become a far greater weapon than gas itself; gas warfare, in the popular mind, is a horribly lethal method of war.

* To deflate and debunk, the myths and legends that have sprung up about chlorine and mustard, lewisite, and adamsite was the purpose of a book by

the author merely collects and summarises them and points a moral. The book is in no way a companion piece to that monumental and definitive work on poison gas—"Chemicals in War," by Lieutenant-Colonel Augustin M. Prentiss, nor is it to be compared with J. B. S. Haldane's "Callinicus." Upon both of these works the author has drawn freely; indeed, without tKem his own book would scarcely b& so authoritative or so wise. But Professor Kendall makes no pretence to abstruse scholarship or exhaustive treatment —it is merely a popular discussion of a controversial subject intended to present to -the many who are not well-informed the true facts about poison gas. Professor Kendall maintains that the British public have been deluged ever since the Armistice with "lurid descriptions of their approaching extermination," and he proceeds to demolish, with very*, considerable success, the arguments of the three classes of writers —"pure sensationalists, ultrapacifists, and military experts"—who, he says, are responsible for these exaggerated descriptions. HALDANE'S JUDGMENT. In a chapter "Don't Be Afraid of Poison Gas!" he quotes Haldane: "Poison gas is not the menace it is popularly supposed to be . . . the dread is entirely psychological and a recognition of this dread which almost amounts to hysteria is the first step in defeating gass." To prove these assertions the author has drawn freely upon the figures of gas casualties in the World War, which, after the surprise of the early attacks had been overcome by suitable defensive measures, were small. "Actually, only 5.7 per cent, of all the wounded of the World War were wounded by gas and less than 1.4 per cent, of the total deaths were gas deaths. To put the matter in another way—only one out of every eighteen injured was a gas injury; only one out of every seventy-five killed was j killed by gas . „ . Poison gas reaped j

INCASE OF AIR RAIDS

Plans on how to strengthen . the walls' of homes, in a. pamphlet %ff go to every ono in Britain,

the allied trenches-. Fog'i No, it was the fog of death—gas. What followed "almost defied description": "The- smoke and fumes hid everything from, sight and within an hour the whole position had to be abandoned, together with about fifty, guns. Few

of the defenders, -who were taken' en■v tirely by .surprise, escaped unhurt;-the casualties amounted to 20,000, of which 5000 wejre fatal.'! ; . ~ From that first gas attack, in any war, when the Germans released 168 Jons of chlorine on a four-mile front,

James Kendall, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. NO NEW MATERIAL. The author professes to no vast amount of military knowledge; in fact he seems to set little store by those who do, but he does lay just claim to a knowledge of chemistryt Not that Professor Keqdall contributes anything that is new. For there is nothing new to contribute. The facts about poison gas have been well known to the wellinformed for years; in "Breathe Freely"

only as insignificant part of the ghastly harvest." And, towards the end of the war when the defence against gas had been well perfected, "it took nearly eight tons of mustard gas to kill a single man!" Furthermore, in "degree of suffering, percentage of deaths and permanent after-effects" gas warfare is "the most humane method of warfare yet devised by man." It would have been far better jf Colonel Prentiss, whom Professor Kendall quotes, had written "the least inhumane method of warfare," for certainly no warfare—its object lethal destruction—can be humane. Mr. Kendall explodes the popular but fallacious belief that the formula for some new and dreadful "supergas" is hidden in one of the chemical laboratories of the world, and explains that the much-advertised lewisite, invented by an American chemist too late to be used in the World War, has effects upon the human system "essentially similar" to mustard gas, but is more easily detected. DEFENCE NOW SUPERIOR. And the defence against poison gas on the battlefield had so far "outstripped offence" that casualties in a future war among properly equipped and well-disciplined troops will probably be confined to "men who have been taken entirely by surprise and have not had time to adjust their gasmasks." -'•..■■ From a discussion of chemical warfare on the battlefield. Professor Kendall proceeds by easy stages and with the help of extensive quotation from authors who have trail-blazed the pathway to such common-sense books as this, to a discussion of the real bogy of. civilian populations—gas warfare against great cities. Here is the raison d'etre of "Breathe Freely"; it is a plea against panic. It is the author's contention, and it is a logical, well-documented one, that if civilian populations are well disciplined and well trained in protection against gas . its use against large cities must be re- j

latively ineffective. He demolishes, at least to the satisfaction.of this writer, the much-publicised views of the socalled "Cambridge Scientists AntiWar Group," who' criticised the British Government's precautionary measures for the protection of the civilian population and endorses the gas-defence steps suggested in the Air Raid Precautions Handbook. He concludes it is unlikely "that. Germany1 will ever use poison gas as a major air-raid weapon against our (Britain's) civilian population. It simply will not pay her to do so provided we are prepared and refuse to panic." SUPPOKTED BY FACTS. Professor Kendall is far more certain in his touch when he discusses chemistry than when he verges—which he does only briefly—on the shifting field of politics. His assertions about the effectiveness of gas warfare are supported by the solid buttress of facts and by the opinions of most of those whose opinions on the subject are

worth;' hearing. He; is, not so; convincing - when he deals—far more briefly— with;the effects of high explosive and j thermite1 bombs. And, above all, the reason for this book; —the plea for .'a cool' head, calm nerves, and disciplined control of psychological fear, the instinct to panic—demonstrates the futility: of figures. For, as Colonel Prentiss points out in his study of gas warfare, "the use of chemicals against civil populations as a means of influencing military decisions has . never been attempted,", and "until it has undergone the acid test of war experience . . . the possibilities of this feature of modern warfare must remain speculative." Thus, while one can agree wholeheartedly .with Professor Kendall's interesting and lucid presentation of the facts, one must continue to regard with deep concern the looming fears of the masses, the unreasoning panic of the crowd, which aire, and must remain, despite common-sense books like this, the greatest dangers of air raids of tomorrow.