MUST GO CAREFULLY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11194, 27 April 1922, Page 5

MUST GO CAREFULLY

ARMY REDUCTION IN AMERICA. USE OF POISON GAS. Australian and V.Z. Cable Association. WASHINGTON, April 25. Mr J. W. Weeks,' Secretary of War, giving evidence before the Senate Appropriations Committee, declared that the chaotic state of world affairs and the creation of new balances of power, such as that involved by the new Ger-inan-Russian Tieaty, would make the reduction of the United States Army below 150,000 folly. The decrease proposed by the House Bill would invite aggression. Mr Weeks said: “While the Washington Treaty banned the use of poison gas in future wars, the use of chemical establishments, and the ease with, which they can he transformed into pjoducers of destructive gases are so well known that I think it would be fatal to abandon the experiments and investigations of the American Army along this line.” WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN VIEW OF GENERAL PERSHING.

(Received April 26, 5.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April . 25. General Pershing, speaking in support of Mr Weeks’s statement,»declared that if the United States had an adequate army she might have prevented the world war, or at least would have saved America the humiliation of depending on the Allies to hold back the enemy for more than a year before the United States was even partially prepared. -