FEWER WAR CASUALTIES

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1935, Page 9

FEWER WAR CASUALTIES

MEDICAL MAN’S OPINION CIVILIANS NOW IN LESS DANGER. THOROUGH PREPARATIONS MADE. PROTECTION AGAINST GAS ATTACK By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Sept. 2. “The casualties in the next war will be relatively fewer than in the last, because not only will defensive preparations be more thorough and armies more thoroughly organised, but air transport will be available for the wounded. These opinions were expressed by Colonel C. I. Ellis, surgeon-in-chief to the St. John Ambulance Brigade, who is en route to Melbourne with the B.M.A. party. “Civilian ■ populations in the cities will not be in danger of being wiped out.” .. Colonel Ellis said it was not generally known that Britain had taken immense strides to ensure that in the event of war at least one room in every house would be invulnerable against gas or germs. Britain was slow to awake to the danger, but in the past few months a countrywide campaign of instruction had been carried out apd it was being extended every day. . If Britain was involved in tne next war the people could be advised by radio of the extent and duration of the gas attack and by using protective measures the casualties were unlikely to be anything like so large as was populaily believed. “In the next war we will not rely on agreements or conventions, but will be ready for gas or germs before they can be brought into use,” said Colonel Ellis.