CHEMICAL WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22709, 23 October 1935, Page 15

CHEMICAL WAR

GRIM PICTURE PAINTED The Manchester Guardian states that a grim picture of the horrors of chemical warfare was painted by Mr J. H. Fremlin, of. the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, at a meeting of the Teacher and Parent Anti-war Group, held at Battersea. A petition was circulated for signature that the signatories, "realising that scientific and expert opinion has declared that there is no real protection cgainst gas and air raids, and believing that the National Government's proposals for air-raid precautions and 'black-outs' are part of ils general policy for preparing the country for war, declare our determined opposition to those measures, and request the Borough Council to refuse to operate the Government's circular on ' air-raid precautions.' " Mr Frcmlin said that one high-ex-plosive bomb would destroy six acres—i.e., in a thickly populated district, 300 people. An incendiary bomb could not be extinguished by water, but must be left to burn itself out. The Government's suggestions for sanding an attic floor as a means of protection were almost farcical. Mustard gas dropped in the form of a spray would be similar to a poisonous rain! In cold weather such gas might lie about the ground for weeks, becoming active again as soon as a warm spell set in. Then there were the choking gases, such as phosgene, the tear gases, and the arsenical smokes. There was no possible protection against high-explosive bombs, and against incendiary bombs effective measures were exceedingly difficult. For gas bombs the remedies were gas masks, shelters, or evacuation. . The masks cost from £3 2s 6d up to £l3 10s. The mere idea of building gas shelters on a, large scale suggested an exorbitant expense. Mr Fremlin dwelt on the inevitable casualties resulting from an attempt to evacuate the population of an area sprayed with mustard gas—the traffic blocks and the pedestrians trampled underfoot. The " black out" he described as the most dangerous method of all, since towns could be located by directional wireless, and the probabilities of panic were great. "Even if the evacuation were carried out," Mr Fremlin concluded, " imagine half a million people in tents without adequate food supplies or proper sanitation. Then bacterial warfare becomes possible, but probably unnecessary, for such an assembly would breed its own bacteria, those of influenza, pneumonia, and typhoid." Cr Arthur Gillian, general secretary of the Drug and Chemical Workers' Union, said the Home Office circular on air-raid precautions was undiluted nonsense. There were thousands of houses in Southwark and Battersea which were, not even rainproof, let alone gasproof. Women must refuse to let their men go to the next war.