Poison Gas Boomerang for Germans

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 207, 1 September 1944, Page 5

Poison Gas Boomerang for Germans

THREATS NOT TAKEN SERIOUSLY Received Thursday, 9.50 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 31. Reports are circulating in all parts of Germany that in a last effort to avert defeat the Germans will use gas, says a correspondent in Switzerland. Chemical factories in Bohemia and Northern Italy are fulfilling large orders for gas components. It is officially stated that the War Department is not worried about reports that Germany may resort to poison gas, says the New York Times’ Washington correspondent. Our conffidence is based on the fact that the Allies are better prepared than the Germans for this type of warfare. Moreover, the United States has made it amply clear that there are huge supplies of poison gas overseas ready for use, and if provoked into retaliation they could spread it from one end of Germany to the other. Some officials doubt that Germany will use poison gas because she missed her most strategic opportunity—the period of the invasion. If she used it now it could cause only limited trouble whereas Allied gas warfare against German cities and armies because of air superiority might bring about the end of the war.