WAR AND A NEW WORD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23603, 12 March 1940, Page 6

WAR AND A NEW WORD

Whatever else war may destroy, it often creates words, and this war seems as likely as any to do so. Already it has produced one of considerable interest and meaning —"de-gaussing," in the phrase "de-gaussing apparatus." The magnetic mine is the sort of thing that a little while ago was filling many minds with fear. How cunningly it was contrived, and how it did its deadly work when passing vessels exercised upon it a magnetic attraction, to their ruinous hurt, are common knowledge. As a new maritime menace, it was successful enough to satisfy its inventors. But the rest of the story is of profounder satisfaction to the Allies, to Britain particularly. British courage and skill put the "de" into "de-gaussing," to the annoyance of the enemy. Into this part of the story come decorations for valour. Men took their lives in their hands by dismantling such of these mines as could be secured before they had been exploded. This was, indeed, work for brave hearts as well as cool and capable heads, but it was done as all in the day's work by those mentally equipped to make the venture. Soon, when piece by piece the job was accomplished on a mine or two, the secret of the construction was understood. Then came the invention of means to counter its threat: ingenuity was overcome by ingenuity. Now all metal-built British vessels are being fitted with a safety-girdle, by the safeguarding service of which, it is asserted, every such vessel will be rendered immune. No vessel so fitted in the past three months has been lost. The Queen Elizabeth, taken safely all the way from the Clyde to New York, wore such a girdle. So scientific skill and manful courage have been employed in a way that is worth remembering when it is regretfully said that human inventiveness has been turned mainly to evil uses.