DANGEROUS POISON GAS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20229, 13 April 1929, Page 11

DANGEROUS POISON GAS.

DILEMMA FOR COLOGNE. EFFORTS AT DESTRUCTION. MANY SCHEMES FUTILE. T'nies Coble. LONDON# April .11. The Berlin correspondent of the Times says: However proud many Germans have been about poison gas inventions the city fathers at Cologne have learned to hate the very name of it. The authorities found themselves in possession of a large quantity of the gas after the war. It was stocked in a munitions factory near the city. They have not yet found a safe way to lose it. First the municipal officials tried burning the gas, but the fumes killed the rural vegetation in the neighbourhood and the farmers protested. Next, they buried it a yard deep under the factory. The latter was subsequently dismantled and the fumes caused grave uneasiness. Tho gas containers were then buried deep in sandy soil in the expectation that they would gradually sink into oblivion. Instead, tho fumes polluted the water supply. Questions were asked in the Prussian Diet and it was decided to enclose the gas containers and sink them to the seabed. The railway authorities, however, pointed out that the transport of the Containers would be dangerous and fishermen said they feared tho fish would be poisoned. The burning: of the gas was again attempted, but the plan was abandoned. It was next decided to bury the containers again where there was no water. A pit, several feet deep, was dug. It was floored with 12 inches of impervious clay, also a six-inch bed of reinforced concrete. Next ai coffin was constructed of reinforced concrete, trebly insulated with tar and other impervious substances. Tho coffin was lowered, packed outside in two feet layers of clay. Twenty thoussand containers, holding nearly two tons of the poison gas, were dug up and placed , in the coffin with a quantity of earth infected by broken containers. A reinforced concrete iid was affixed to the coffin, which lay 10ft. under the ground. Tho whole was covored, with thick clay. Unfortunately many of tho containers, were overlooked and the authorities now are debating whether to reopen the coffin or to prepare another " grave."