GERMS AS NEW WAR WEAPON

Evening Star, Issue 21797, 13 August 1934, Page 11

GERMS AS NEW WAR WEAPON

STORY OF SECRET GERMAN DOCUMENTS

“ Secret German documents ” containing plans for a new form of aerial warfare are revealed by Mr Wickham Steed in an article he has written for the July number of the ‘ Nineteenth Century.’ “1 can,” he says, “find no serious reason to doubt their genuineness; anil they bear so directly upon the safety ol Great Britain and other countries that they ought not to be withheld from public knowledge. In the main they emanate from what is alleged to be a secret department of the German War Office, or Reichswehrministerium, and consist of communications between _ it and sundry German undertakings which are interested in the manufacture and development of aircraft and in methods of aerial warfare.” The documents, which Mr Steed says came to him through “ various nonJewish channels,” relate to a number of experiments that have taken place since 1931 These experiments were undertaken to see what was the best method of “raining down liquids containing chemicals or bacteria upon enemy cities,” and, according to the documents in Mr Steed’s possession, the Air Gas Attack Department of the German War Office also turned its attention to the possibilities of infecting the underground railway systems of both Paris and London with deadly germs or poison gas, or with both. Mr Steed concludes his article by giving a number of extracts from the reports ol German agents detailed off to make experiments at various points of the Paris underground railway. THE FIRST MOVE. The bacilli chosen for the experiments were the ‘ Micrococcus prodigiosus.” “If,” says a memorandum submitted by a man who signs himself “ No. 1X.,” “these bacilli could be successfully rained down from an aeroplane, with sufficient concentration, from various heights and in varying conditions of wind and weather, etc., and . could be caught by culture plates on the ground, then one could study at one stroke, aero-dynamically and meteorologically, not only bacteriological, but also chemical spraying.” The next extract, which Mr Steed gives from No. IX.’s memorandum, relates to the infection of the underground railways. Experiments seem to have been made at Berlin and Hamburg, but, says No. IX., “ quite as important, nay, much more important, would it be to investigate the conditions in the Paris Metro, and in the various London systems according to the Berlin scheme of measurements. Our knowledge of these conditions is still thoroughly inadequate. . . “ Nevertheless, the undersigned is able to see from the figures before him that the L.G.A. scheme (the L.G.A. is an abbreviation of “ Luft-gas-angrilf " or the “ Air " gas attack ” department) for the infection of large cities like Paris or London by distributing separate deposits of Yellow Cross (mustard gas) or bacilli in the systems of their underground railways ought, in the main, to be practicable. The ascertained, tnough doubtless abnormal effects of the indraught of air at the entrances to many underground stations and stopping places are also very interesting (compare the measurements at the Pasteur, Montparnasse, and, above all, Concorde stations in Paris, or in London at Leicester square, Tottenham Court road, and especially Piccadilly Circus and Liverpool street). These effects would greatly assist gas attacks by airmen upon these points, since spaces like the Place de la Concorde or Piccadilly Circus offer a typical picture from the air, and are therefore very easy for an observer to spot.” LIQUIDS DROPPED. Mr Steed goes on to say that experiments in dropping liquids containing bacteria from the air were made in 1933. “ The mixture was rained down from an aeroplane flying at various heights between 5,000 and 1,000 metres, culture plates having been placed in suitable positions upon the flying field below.” It appears the experiments gave “ encouraging results,” and that the culture plates had caught enough bacilli to prove the procedure recommended by No. IX. to be practicable. “ Of greater interest than these projects," writes Mr Steed, “ is a document which, at first sight, appeared incomprehensible. A double sheet of about foolscap size bore a series of numbered entries, the text being written, or rather scribbled, hastily in pencil. The paper showed clear marks of fingerprints. The entries seem to have been made in the open air and the paper itself to have been laid or to have fallen on the ground, for it is distinctly dirty. It bears no date or signature, but, from internal evidence,

was begun on August 18, 1933. Across the left top corner run the words—in the same handwriting as the text and underlined in red—‘ Please examine carefully and check by diagram.’ There seemed little hope of making out what this document meant for_ it consists entirely of German abbreviations and of figures. ... THE TESTS. “ By careful expert study, with , the help of a map of Paris, nearly all of the abbreviations and figures could nevertheless be made out. Not only does the deciphered text show how thoroughly the plans for air attack with bacteriological solutions or gas, or both, have been tested by German agents in Paris (and probably elsewhere), but it proves that the author of the document must have . been acquainted with the proposals and calculations supplied by No. IX. ... “ The object of the experiments was to find out how many ‘ colonies ' of Micrococcus prodigiosus would grow upon culture plates, placed in or near the entrances to various underground stations, after the Place de la Concorde, and apparently other places, had been sprayed with large numbers of these germs, and the germs themselves had been carried by the wind to the openings of- the underground stations or sucked in by ventilators.” Mr Steed then gives a number of extracts from the reports of the German agents. , The first five experiments were apparently not very encouraging, ,but the agents had better luck near the underground station, Porte de Versailles. “Very good result!!!” states the delighted report, “ 6,738 colonies obtained." Still better were the results of test No. 8 at the Chamber of Deputies station, 500 metres from the obelisk on the Place de la Concorde, “1,124,781 colonies grew because the point is so near the obelisk. IX. is right!!! this inside result is annihilating!!” , , ■ SCEPTICISM IN FRANCE. Scientific opinion in Paris is disposed to be sceptical about the possibilities of bacteriorlogical warfare referred to in Mr Steed’s article (wrote the correspondent of the ‘ Observer ’). Mr Steed bases his article on certain “ secret German documents,” which have come into his possession. It is considered unlikely that the experiments described in Mr Steed’s article ever really took place. The germs, it is objected, would not have travelled so rapidly or so numerously as alleged, and would have lost their force .after contact with the air. Moreover, the test plates referred to could not have been exposed without attracting attention.

Mr Robert Debre, professor of bacteriology at the Paris Faculty of Medicine, considers that it is quite possible that the Germans have conceived such a plan, but points out several difficulties and dangers in its execution. Bacteria, he says, could be sown from the sky by dropping some heavy substances charged with them, but not by a bomb, the heat of whose explosion would destroy the bacteria. But, supposing the spreading of an epidemic to have been_ accomplished, it would be quite impossible to confine it to the enemy lines, to say nothing of the facility of reprisals. The impartiality between the allied and German forces of the influenza epidemic of 1918 showed that there is no in this respect between opposing armies. Professor Debre suggests that the real object of the German General Staff is to terrorise the civil population by threats of action which it would probably never really undertake.