PERILS OF GAS WAR

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11842, 25 January 1933, Page 5

PERILS OF GAS WAR

GET OUT AND GET UNDER

CITIES OF THE FUTURE

Paced by the danger ol' gas attacks from the air, cities of. the future may have to he built underground. This startling possibility is visualised by Dr. Stolzenbcrg, a noted German chemist, who described the defensive plans of a Russian scientist to a meeting of the Association oi Guiman Chemists at Berlin.

He told bow easy it would be -‘or enemy aeroplanes to reach German towns in. eliort iliglits and. dropping bomb after bomb charged with poison gas, spread death and desolation in their wake.

“Assuming that airmen fly at an average speed of 160 miles per hour.” Dr. Stoltzcnbcrg said, "all towns in the Rhineland could he reached from the French border in less than an hour. .

“Aeroplanes would take only two and a quarter hours to fly from the French, frontier to Berlin, forty-five minutes' from Poland, and fifty minutes from Czechoslovakia. It would be a matter of only a few minute:* to reach other German cities from.foreign countries by air.

CITY SMOKE SCREENS

“Explosive and inflammable bombs would open the attack.” Dr. Stoltzen--Ito rye predicted. “A small 1001 b bomb would be sufficient to blow a city building to pieces. Bombs weighing 6001 b s to lOOOlbs can make a rubbish heap of a whole block of city houses Modern aero phi nos cau carry as many as ninety 1001 b bombs each. A vivid- description of the panic that would seize bombed . cities was given by .the speaker. “The panic.” he said, “is likely to start when, as a defensive measure, we cover cities or lactorics in smoke, or artificial fog.

•‘This fog-darkness. coupled with the strange sight ol citizens about in gas masks, making familiar faces unrecognisable. would heighten the panic and alarm.”

Dr. Stoltzenberg also described the ingenious means by which cities would be blanketed with fog. “We would.” be declared, “use steel musts, nearly 1000 ft. high. From these fog would be emitted at various altitudes. so that if the wind blows away the upper layers the city below will still bo shielded by other sheets of mist.”

Dr. Stoltzenberg directed attention to the suggestions of M. I. N. Libiuson, the Russian expert, who bail sketched a new type of city built for the explicit purpose of warding off deadly gas attacks.

These proposals provide for the construction of cities with broader streets running in the direction of the prevailing wind'. Skyscrapers would be be abolished, as they are considered death-traps in the ease of bombing gas raids. Til their place would be low. flat buildings, writes a British United Press correspondent.

A huge section of -”••• city would be built underground. The subterranean districts would he lined with cement, provided with artificial sunshine, filtered air drawn from high altitudes by a pumping system, and storage houses for food supplies.

Hospitals, power plants, and otlio r equipment would make it possible for thousands of these up-to-date cave dwellers to seek comfortable refuge there from the attacking; aeroplanes. These supcr-dugouts would also include road for motor trucks, trains, ami railway stations.

Dr. Stoltzenberg had valuable gas experience during the war. In May, 1928, his factory at Hamburg was the scene of the explosions that took place in phosgene gas tanks, spreading terror among the residents and killing many people.