ASPHYXIATING CASES.

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 July 1915, Page 6

ASPHYXIATING CASES.

GERM AN A L LEG A TIG NS. Since., tlic first outburst of satisfaction the German Press have dealt rather cautiously with the subject of aspliyxitaing gases, and there have been few more utterances about the triumphs of German chemistry. The Cologne Gazette remarks that asphyxiation cannot have been the sole cause' of the German advance north of'Ypres, since there was a simultaneous German ■ access eV - where on the Trench front. The same journal declares that th enemv has used shells the only purpose of which is to spread poisonous gases, vhMe the Germatus have “added a chemicaV’ to she;is. the main effect of which |s pm |r -tel bv (lie explosion. It adds that Hie Allies ‘throughout the war have assn mod “that everything is permitted to them, but nothing to’ the Bodies and the Huns/' Meai.wh Me the Berlin Press Bureau is gradual!r inventing defences. It pub ]i.shcs, lust, a mistranslation of a, passage in one of “.Eye- witness’s” reports about the fight for Hill 60, so as to attribute to him, quite falsely, the statement that asphyxiating gases were used jiofc by the Germans but by the British; and, secondly, a letter from “a South African from the Orange Free State” about the use of asphyxiating gases Jn the South African War. The writer is made to say that his father was present at Paardeherg and “told him a great deal about the use of such bombs by the English.” These inventions may perhaps be regarded as the first-fruits of the reorganisation of the Press Bureau, which has now been made a separate department of the German Foreign Office. Its e.otoiqous director, Dr Hanimann, now takes rank with the head of the four other departments.