HORRORS OF NEXT WAR

Evening Star, Issue 17923, 20 March 1922, Page 8

HORRORS OF NEXT WAR

♦ HOW THE IMPUTATIONS WILL BE DESTROYED. DEATH SPRAYED FROM AIRCRAFT. The special correspondent (Mr W. H. Neyison) of the 'Manchester Guardian* to tho Washington Conference gives the following •Graphic "descrpt'ou of America's poison-gas works at Edgewood, Baltimore, probably the greatest poison works in the world. The Chemical Warfare- Corps is a special branch of the army, like artillery, consisting of about 2,000 men, 101 officers, aud 1,200 civilians employed, besides 100 trained chemists, who receive purchase ;money for all inventions, but the Government resorves the. right to purchase. The War Office pays for the establishment 1,200,000 dollars out of tho army grant, which jb about 400 000,000 dollars, I believe. The works, brought to the highest perfection just before tho armistice, could then produce 200 tons of poison gas daily. They are now working at "reatly reduced pressure, but are maintained in' complete readiness, with a permanent staff of machines in working order. The results are continually inspected and tested separately. Staffs for defence and offence are continuing- working against each other, every sdvanco in poison being met, if possible, by prolectico methods, such as new devices in nuivks to prevent death by suffocation, or ininormcablo overalls to prevent death by burning Upon the French front our masks could be put on in six seconds; how the mask can be put on in three, by one single movement without tics. There are notable devices for preventing mist upon glass rroHc* which are also constructed as to break but never splinter. Much improvement'has been made in tho breathing tubo and cylinder. Tbeio aro two hermetically sealed chambers which men. volunteer to enter without extra payment to test the power of tho gases, and in which they are watched through a window till they signal on feeling tho effect of gas in faintnesg or sickness. _ Chlorine made from common table salt is the basis of all poison gases except, perhaps, Lewisite. Tho salt is dissolved in enormous vats like iron foundries. Many kinds of «as aro manufactured. Tho best for suffocation is called phosgene. Miwtard cas bums the flesh off well and penetrates any clothing, as was found in tho war. CMoropierin produces inlonse vomiting, disabling tho victim until tho enemy arrives to kill. Lachrvmntory gas causes floods of t<\ii'< like a melodrama, as I found upon ! approaching the factory, in spito of a rather | sweet smell; but the effect wears off—if the sufferer survives a bayonet attack. Lewisite is a burning gas like mustard, but far more powerful. It spreads slowly, unlike phosgene, which on that account is niioro favored in ordinary bombing from the air for wind rapidly carries phosgene far and wide, suffocating all. But Lewisite oould bo sprayed upon cities with boso from aircraft. It has an excellent,effect of burnintr clothes skin, and flesh off all, citizens and soldiers indifferently. It is difficult to estimate the area which could be thus affected, but if skilfully used the gas would certainly kill a whole population with great rapidity. Bombs are now made up to a weight of 4 3001 b. each carrying one ton of the highest explosive T.N.T.. or a similar amount, less in weight, of suffocating or burning gas. aircraft carrying several bombs or sprayin? mnohines could easily destroy groat cities if unopposed, and gradually reduce the whole human population, thus rendering birth control unnecessary. There is a most interesting museum upon the premises.illustrating the growth of various destructive chemical processes and attempts to counteract them. The whole factory proven human ingenuity for slaughter and tho horror of tho next war. All attempts to check tho employment of improved instruments of destruction bavo hitherto been vain, as was proved at The Hague, and in our protest against the use of gas in the late war. It fe useless to forbid inventions; the only way is to exterminate war. Perhaps this object may bo furthered by increasing the terror for stay-at-homo eiredly men and women, who will no longer give their sons only but themselves.