LEAST DANGEROUS

Evening Star, Issue 22559, 29 January 1937, Page 11

LEAST DANGEROUS

GAS ATTACKS The various forms of air attack and the methods of meeting them were explained to the Medical Practitioners’ Union in London by Major Stuart Blackraore, of the Home Office. Gas, when used against a trained population, was described by Major Blackmore as the least dangerous form of air attack. The three major he said, according to a report in ‘ The Times,’ were high explosive bombs, incendiary bombs, and gas bombs. He placed gas last, because gas, in spite of its extraordinary dangers to an untrained population evidence of which they had recently in Abyssinia —was the least dangerous of the three if they had a proper degree of_ training and equipment. A high-ex-plosive bomb was a factor against which it was practically impossible to provide adequate protection. The object of the incendiary bomb was to produce widespread fire. For that reason incendiary bombs were not large. They weighed about 21b. It was much more difficult to deal with a large number of small sources of fire than a small number of large sources. Incendiary bombs were provided with their own oxygen, and it was highly undesirable to put water of - chemical extinguisher on them The bombs burned at such a tremendously high temperature -chat chemicals applied to put the fire out would be broken up and would give off dan gerous gases. Water and extinguisher should be applied to the area surrounding the fire, and efforts should be made rather to isolate than to put it out. The method of dealing with incendiary bombs was comparatively simple. If one had handy a coal scuttle or a stout bucket, in which

there was two or three inches of sand and a scoop with a handle of about Gft, it was possible to put the bomb into the receptacle and take it outside. It was incumbent on every doctor, nurse, and medical student in the country to know about gas. The Government recently acquired a factory for tho manufacture of gas masks, and tho masks would he kept in stores dotted all over the country in readiness for use. It was not proposed to distribute the masks to the public in ponce time, because they were delicately constructed, and it might ho that if they were distributed now they would he found to be useless when the time came for them to be used.