"GASSING."

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume L, Issue 175, 6 October 1917, Page 1

"GASSING."

Much is written in general terms in the newspapers about "gassing" (flaya Sir Henrv Lucv in his weekly letter from London' in the 'Sydney Morning Herald). ' Little is known by English-, men. who live at home, niore or less at ea.se. about it« action and' effect. Tu conversation with a Canadian officer, home on hospital leave, I learned a good, deal. He took part in the fight of Vimy Ridge, captured in surprising short timo by the indomitable Canadians. He was .■"gassed" in the moment of victory, and is" still, after months of rest and medical treatment, unable to resume the aetivo service for winch be pines. Poisonous gas made its first appearance in the second battle of Vprcs. It« effects were so startling and paralysing that a body of French colonial troops holding a critical position tumbled backward half nsphvxinted. Only the stubborn couyago of British forces averted, grave disaster.

Since that time the use of poison gas has been fully adopted on both sides. The gas helmet- lias become an ordinary indispensable item of an army whoso, forebears centuries ago fought at Crecy and Agincourt with bows and arrows. The" Canadian captain who has worn one habituallv admits that it is trifle inconvenient in actual fighting. But as ut menus of defence against insidious attack it is usually effective, and is invariablv resorted to. The effects of actual "gassing" are various and strange. In «om"! cases they do not disclose themselves for a week." A comrade who was unknowingly smitten at the same moment, as m'v friend went about, his daily work in ordinary fashion. On the> seventh dav. the noison having got thoroughly' into his blood, developed into sudden violent attacks of lunacy. Tt was found necessary to bind hi« limb* and convey him to a ba«e hospital where three days later he, died a raving lunatic. The best thing to do when" "gn^sod"—a nrocccding not always possible—is to lie absolutely quiet. Any motion of the bodv sots the poison coin-sin*- through the veins with increasingly dangerous effect. Temporary paralysis is a common result of the poison.' neuritis an invariable and prolonged ac-

Rpcont.lv (lie Germans have invented .i process of "passing" other than the blowing of the poison in the faces of opposimr ranks. They have made a shell which thev charge with poisonous gas of exceptional gravity. Selecting a windless dav, they bombard detachments of our men with these missiles, preferring those located m low-lying land The bombs, when thev strike the "round, do not explode. The contact merely fractures a carefully prepared weak plaen in the bomb, whence the poison gas slowlv issue.*. lving like heavy mist'on the ground, makinm life unbearable for man and beast. Up to the present they hold the ! inononolv of this devilish 'device introduced into "the noble art of war."