AN ADDED TERROR TO WARFARE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143764, 12 April 1912, Page 7

AN ADDED TERROR TO WARFARE.

Tho last legacy Sir V/ili-Sin Ramsay loaves to tho thought ol * ii'ie age before ins retirement from the-Chair of General Chemistry at Lomtam University is tho suggestion that«>russ»o acid bombs are a perfectly possßte development in the weapons of wiuv Sir' W illiam’s point is- that such weapons would be so appalling in their tweets that, if only international law would allow' them to bo used, war wouldlftlK-conio impossible. This idea is stale,' One may question whether it is trup. Mmu military thinkers, rcgardiung recent militarv lessons, are coming to doubt whether modern weapons rcavlly possess their -much-advertised “cleadlinres.’ “in all that is said and written about tbo horrible effectiveness jof modern guns and rifles, it seems tofflie, assumed that you arc going to batnjboozle the enemy into standing in front- of them (said a military thinker, „ discussing the matter with a Standard representative). “In other woods, oui or-, dnance inventors base thefri estimates of * the deadliness of their rjveapon on tiie assumption that the other side is coin," to advance against thorn in some such" formation as that lerauiloyetLby Duke William at the Battle lof Hastings. Of course, no enemyi 1 would be anything like so silly. In dwar to-day tho protagonists try to dhoot each, other at a distance of 2000evards, with the, result that, as in the last). Boer war, the ratio of enemy killed to Jbullots expended is about 1 to 200,00)'. It was in ancient and medieval tilnea wh«n people employed really deadly- weapons such as chibs, spears, bows-and arrows, and even flintlocks that warwasjustly aliirniino to the individual. , Think ot the terrific slaughter inflicbnd within half an hour by the English kpwmen at Ardncourt. Poicticrs, and Cre»-y. Then think of the Italian battlcsHip armed with the last word in dost rod ive artillery bombarding Tripoli aIU( day and killing a. eat, “Of course, (lit we are really allowed to employ then resources of Sir William Ramsay’s science, things would he verv different. If w might poison wells, spurt prussic acid through the clouds, and fire bombs full of the germs of deadly epidemic disease, war would speedily" become extinct out of its sheer horribleneas. But, aus ihmgs arc, it is not ill its destructiveness to life that wo must find hone, for the final end of war, but in its Jesb-uctn eness to property. It is not tlw? mortality of man, but the'mortalitywoMwealth that will stop war. ’ 1