BEDTIME STORIES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 3 February 1925, Page 5

BEDTIME STORIES.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN

IN THE NEXT WAR

BY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. WASHINGTON, Feb. 1/ Mr. Curtis Wilbur (Secretary of the Navy) has issued a statement ridiculing the stories appearing in _ the Press, magazines and books from time to time predicting the horrors of the ne<xt great war. . Mr Wilbur says -the writers who. seek to terrorise the peoples of the world regarding the awful calamities of the next war overlook one fundamental principle of war, namely, to have war one must have defence, and that 'the method of defence should .he commensurate with offence. Thus, if poison gas can be used by one side, it can be used by the other. If disease germs are used by one side, they can be employed by the other. Afore over a nation using disease germs cannot confine the effects of the disease to one side of a fighting line. Mr Wilbur stresses the negotiation of treaties prohibiting the use of gas, and says, moreover, that it would be impossible .to transport or apply sufficient poison gas or other chemicals or biological products to poison the populations of whole cities or countries as some writers predict. The idea, is ridiculous, and should be relegated to the field of bedtime stories. “M_v own judgment,” added Mr "W ilbur, “is that- the next war will be like most wars in history —sporadic and local, involving comparatively few people, and will be quickly over. The chances ar e that the judgment of mankind will oppose any war for the whole purpose of the extermination or annihilation of nations or peoples.”