CIVILIANS IN NEXT WAR

Hawera Star, Volume L, 19 May 1930, Page 8

CIVILIANS IN NEXT WAR

EXAGGERATION OF GAS RISKS

Protest- against alarmist pictures of the danger to civilians from the use of gas bombs during the next war was made recently by Major F. A. Freeth, F.R.S., states the “Daily Telegraph.” Major Freeth was lecturing on “The Chemistry of AA T ar.”

It was impossible, lie said, to keep the psychological aspect of human affairs out of any department of life, let alone war. “Gas is undoubtedly a potent weapon within a restricted range,” he said. “But I would like to protest against the idea which many people have that science is possessed of gases of amazing deadly killing power. “There is a considerable amount of well-informed opinion which holds that mustard gas—which is not a gas at all but a. dark liquid—is the only really effective one for military purposes. “Some time ago I saw a picture in an evening paper depicting the supposed effect of a gas bomb dropped in a London square. Everybody was laid out for yards around. I venture to say this is absolute nonsense. 1 “One of the greatest disservices which the public Press of the country can do it to alarm the civil population with all sorts of stories about the dangers, which, bad as they are, are not half so had as they are made out to be. “In any future war one of the most important matters will he the nerves of the population, and if you bring up a generation whose vvhole idea is that! cancer is a bed-time story for children compared to the effects of gas a great deal of harm will be done. “Do any of you think, if you were standing 75 yards away from a gas bomb when it dropped, and were not hit by a piece of metal, that you would not be hurt?” i Asked whether the idea of towns and villages being wiped out by bombs was rediculous, the lecturer re-! minded his Service audience that iti took a very long time to wipe out J Ypres. If two-ton bombs fell on a I small village that village would he j blotted out. “But,” he added, “you w ill not blot peope out ov r er a. large area with gas, I am perfectly certain.”