The Hawera Star FRIDAY, MARCH 8. 1929 CHEMICAL WARFARE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 March 1929, Page 4

The Hawera Star

FRIDAY, MARCH 8. 1929 CHEMICAL WARFARE.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’clock iD Hawera. Manaia, Normanby. Okaiawa, Eltham, Mnngatoki, Kaponga, AltoD Hurleyville Patea. Waverley, Mokoia. Whakamara. Obangai. Meremere. Fraser Road, and Ararata.

On several occasions during recent months sensational word pictures have been painted by English chemical experts of the conditions which would follow in the wake of the declaration of war between England.and any other nation. While the tendency to talk of “the next Avar’’ is deplored by rightthinking people- who desire peace, warnings of the appalling possibilities which may be expected to accompany the launching of gas attacks cannot be deprecated on the grounds that they encourage the development of a warlike spirit in the peoples of the world. On the contrary, such warnings may be fairly regarded' as being the very best class of peace propaganda-. Viscount Grey has declared that it is by bringing home to each succeeding generation an understanding of the- realities of

'modern war that We shall create a •public opinion which will help to secure peace. In England the Earl of Halsburv has been particularly to the fore i.n warning the nation against the dangers of lethal bombardment. Speaking at the League of Nations Union Conference in London a few weeks ago he affirmed: — "If you take an area, say, from Bichmoncl to the. east of Barking Creek, and from Finchley to Wimbledon and Streatham in the south, a lethal dose "would be 42 tons of gas. It would have to be spread out in every particle, but that would be the theoretical lethal dose, required. Forty-two tons is a mere flea-bite and could be brought over London in 12 hours. It means that in 12 hours every man, woman, and child in that area might fail to live.” Beturning to the. subject more recently, on the occasion of a lecture by Major Humphreys at the Boyal Sanitary Society’s Institute on the horrors of poison gas in the next war, Lord Halsbury urged Londoners to get into a panic now about gas instead of waiting for an attack, and declared that unless the nation were, aroused to the need of organisation it might be faced with the sleep of death. Nor would he ever allow that gas masks might be relied on for protection, for the mask that was effective against one gas might be useless against another. The mere, thought of war .being waged upon, civilians in such a ghastly form should be sufficient to make a pacifist of the most ardent militarist. The best defence, against gas that anyone has yet been able to. devise is "preparedness,” not for defence, but for attack. Lord Halsbury can only advise England to assume the lead in the manufacture of chemical munitions, so that the threat of terrible reprisals may keep in cheek any possible attacks. But if all the other nations adopted a similar policy the outlook would be far from reassuring. In 'the absence of effective means of defence against a gas attack from the air, we can extract a measure of reassurance only from the knowledge that other nations are equally vulnerable and their peoples equally apprehensive of the. results of the outbreak of a war which would | take such inhuman toll of non-combat-lants. It has been said by those who have been made bitter by their sufferings in the Great War that if the man who sanctioned wars had to serve in the front lines, all wars would cease. It may be that chemistry, which has created a weapon to be feared equally by all, has, in reality, made a great contribution to the cause of peace.