GAS WARFARE

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 October 1933, Page 10

GAS WARFARE

FAST AND FUTURE

. The pictures that have been painted of the developments in chemical frightfulpess are sufficiently appalling to. disturb the most phlegmatic. But for some obscure reason the ordinary intelligent citizen is neither well-in-formed on the subject, nor apparently much interested (writes Alex Scott, D. 5.0., M-C., in the Sydney Morning Herald). Yet it is a matter that vitally concerns the ordinary citizen; for, of ail phases of future warfare, gas attache from the air appear most likely to. be aimed at civilians and armed foyces indiscriminately. When experts attempt to forecast the horrors of the next war, that much talked-of person, ■the man in the street, is apt to follow the example of the ostrich, and bury his head in the sand. As a. corrective for this false feeling of security, it may be useful to recall well-established facts regarding the use of gas in the last war; The first gas attack was launched by the Germans at Langemarck, northeast of Ypres, on April 22, 1915. The unfortunate troops selected by fate to bear the brunt of this new warfare were the Canadians, and some French colonials oh their left. The immediate effect was disastrous. Unprotected by any form of mask, the Canadians lost heavily, and had to evacuate their front trenches. Many of the Senegalese disappeared in panic, and a gap in the line some miles wide remained open for the next two days. Had the Germans known, they might have walked through to the coast. But they • let. the chance slip, and in war such gifts of the gods are seldom offered a second time. The German high command has been criticised (like the British in connection with tanks) for its initial use of gas on a small scale, and thus sacrificing the element of surprise without adequate reward. But the Germans may have been influenced, as were the British, by the fear that their secret had already ben discovered. As a. matter of fact a German prisoner, in possession of a gas-mask, had been captured by the French and certain information obtained but its importance was not realised before the attack took place, and the troops remained unwarned. Fourteen years after the end of the war a French staff officer in his reminiscences carelessly disclosed this man’s name, with the result that the Germans hunted him out and punished him as a traitor. The gas used by the Germans was chloHpe, and the fumes were discharged from high-pressure cylinders placed in the front trenches. To be effetive a favourable wind was necessary, and No Man’s Band comparatively narrow. But under such conditions it was at first deadly, It could be released in such concentrated form as to destroy all vegetation in its track, bleach sandbags, turn buttons green with verdigris, and cause fouling to the mechanism of rifles and machineguns. The earliest gas-cloud killed over 5000 men, and no one, however hardened to the horrors of war, ever forgot his first contact with a chlorine gas casualty. In the operations follow-,' ing the original gas attack, it fell to I the writer’s unit to reinforce the front I line near Weiltie. In the corner of an ( (Otherwise emfrty embrasure we found a machine-gunner beside his gun, gasp- I fng for breath, frothing at the mouth, 1

apcl his face nearly black with suffocation. Thus died Private John Lynn, of the Lancashire Regiment. Single-hand-ed he had held up a German attack, gnd his posthumous V.C. ranks high on that roll of brave deeds. j.. . . RETALIATION t The British retaliated with gas on a ’’ considerable scale at L°° s in Septem- ' her, 1915. The discharge was not a suc- ’ cc-ss; indeed, owing to a. change of > wind', it is possible the cloud caused ' more casualties in the British ranks ■ than among the enemy. Chlorine was ■ soon superseded; and a. new gas pro- ' duced by combining it with carbon r monoxide. This' mixture, known as I phosgene, was fifteen times as power--3 ful as pure chlorine; so deadly, indeed, ’ that the fumes killed all rats and other > vermin in its path. r Then came shells filled with “tear’’ ’ gas, -which caused temporary blind- : ness. They were highly effective in counter-battery work without, as a I rule, inflicting permanent injury. Tear- > gas, indeed is now' part of the United States police equipment for dealing I with civil commotion. As the protec- ■ tion against cloud-gas attacks iin- ! proved, and the crude masks were re- ’ placed by more -adequate respirators, ! cylinders were completely abandoned 1 in favour of shells filled with gases of

! the phosgene type, known as Greet Cross because of the distinguishing - mark, on the shells. Then followed mus tard gas (Yellow Cross) which, strict ' ly speaking, was not a gas at all, but > a fine powder, the effect of which 1 lasted for days. Quite frequently cloth ! ing tainted by mustard gas caused nc - harm- till taken down into some warn: r dugout, when the poison vaporised ami 1 resulted in terrible injuries to anj [ living tissue with which it came ir • contact. To- add variety to warfare ! Blue Cross shells next arrived, con taining sneezing gas, a whiff of which ’ made the victim sneeze so violently ■ that he could not keep on the respira ’ tor, and therefore became vulnerable ! to phosgene; for the Blue and Green - Cross shells generally _ hunted in couples. The inventor of this bright '■ idea is unknown to fame but surely - deserves a special niche in hell. ’ Incredible as it may seem, there is • to-day a school of thought (including ■ no less an authority than Captain Lid- ■ del Hart, the military advisor to the • Encyclopedia Britannica) who uphold ! the use of poison gas as a humane ■I influence in warfare. Their argument appears to be based 011 the supposition that chemists will seek for comparatively harmless, sedative gases, to put the enemy to sleep just long ; enough to permit of his being disarmed and captured. It reads like an H. G. Wells romance. Unfortunately, all the evidence available, not only during the Great War, but since, goes to prove that chemists are not concerned with humanitarian results, and have gone from one horror to another. The article “Chemical Warfare” in that terrible book “What would be the character of the next war?” makes Dante’s “Inferno” very mild reading. One passage quoted from the report of the International Red Cross is as follows: — The fatal moment must arrive in which the question of defence. . . becomes an insoluble problem. A large proportion of the inhabitants of populated towns may be doomed to destruction. In conclusion let me make a suggestion in all seriousness. As soon as a member of Parliament is elected in

any civilised country, I would like to make him don a box-respirator for ten minutes in a room containing a small quantity of genuine phosgene. By the legislators that survive some action might be taken.