BOOKS AND (WRITERS

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19459, 26 December 1934, Page 10

BOOKS AND (WRITERS

COMMENTS AND EXTRACTS. “ The bombardment of the Dardanelles forts by the Fleet in the Great War, without troops to land at the different places,- was a disastrous move, for after that the Dardanelles was made practically Impregnable.” —Admiral Mark Kerr.

WORST POISON GAS.

FAMOUS WAR HORSE. LIFE OF “WARRIOR.” LORD MOTTISTONE’S TRIBUTE. Lord Mottistone’s account of his famous horse, “Warrior," lavishly illustrated with drawings by Mr Alfred Munnings, R.A., is an enchanting book ■and few will regard his eulogy as extravagant. Warrior is now' 2G years old; he went through the war from start to finish with Lord Mottislone (then General Seely), who hunted him in theIsle of Wight until a few seasons ago and still rides him as often as lie can. Hero of Wild Adventure. Lord Moltistone makes Warrior the hero of a wild adventure during the March retreat of 1918 which succeeded in an almost miraculous fashion in recapturing the Moreuil Ridge and closing the road to Amiens. The decisive charge of a handful of Canadian cavalry is familiar history: “Warrior cared for nothing. Ilis one idea was to get at the enemy. . . He it was who did not hesitate, and did not flinch, though well he knew the danger from those swift bullets which he had seen kill so many hundreds of men and horses all around him in . the preceding years. I never look at Warrior without remembering that lie had a part, and so far as I was concerned the main part, in achieving that success.” As a two-year-old Warrior proved his courage by entering the sea with heavy waves breaking over his shoulders. This summer he repeated the feat.

■MOST APPALLING AIR PERIL

POTTED WISDOM. FROM THE NEW BOOKS. Womeji, we are told, are having their hair cut fantastically short. Shear nonsense. i * * # Don’t forget: The man who has no money can’t lose. * * m • * Much deception is used in the making of talkies. Apparently they are not what they scream. « * * * Many a man who thinks -he is selfmade is only wife-made. * * >* + It takes a good artist or a good actor to draw a good house. * * * , * A play is to 'be produced with only four actors. We’vo seen some without any. * # * * Perhaps a woman loves secrets for the pleasure it affords her to let them escape. • « • • When people begin to whistle a popular air all the sentiment is blown out of it. * * * m You may lead a fool to talk, but you can’t make him think. * * * ~ "* If you don’t believe the world is growing worse, ask the'oldest inhabitant of any village. * # S* * Measles, it is said, will be unknown . in ten years’ time. Rather a rash prediction, we think.

WHY IT WAS NOT USED

The-raccidental discovery of a poison gas compound, more certain and immediate in its effects Ilian that used by any of the combatant nations in the Great War, is revealed by MajorGeneral C. IF. Foulkes in his extraordinarily interesting and valuable book, “Gas! The Story of a Special Brigade." The horrors that may have to be guarded against in any future war are clearly shown in these pages.

,* Gas, employed against well-disci-plined troops, caused nearly a million casualties on the Western front.

Its effect on civilian populations, ill-trained and Inadequately supplied with protective apparatus, appals the imagination.

Soon after the German gas attack at Ypres in April, 1015, General Foulkes, then a major in 'the Royal Engineers, was, as he expresses it, “interrupted in the middle of a battle" 'by a peremptory summons from Lord (then Sir John) French: “ ‘Do you know anything about gas?" lie asked, to which I replied, quite truthfully, “Nothing at all.” “ ‘Well, I don’t 'think it matters,’ he went on, ‘I want you to take charge of our gas reprisals here in France.’ ”

General Foulkes soon repaired his lack of knowledge.

For the greater part of the war he tin 1 ' 1 the title of “Gas Adviser." He raised, trained and commanded the Special Brigade, a secret unit organised for the purpose of carrying out gas attacks against the enemy. .

He enlisted the services of the best scientific brains in the country, and'in the later stages of the war became president of the Chemical Warfare. Committee. This modest,' clear-sighted and resourceful major of engineers became almost indispensable to the British Army. , Sneezing Gas. Throughout the war lie urged the employment of gas, discharged in clouds on a stupendous scale, immediately before a major attack. His plans for the “unfought campaign” of 1919 would probably have resulted in a decisive victory. Chance gave him his opportunity. The Germans in the latter part of thewar attained some minor successes with Blue Cross shells containing an arsenic compound known as diphenylchlorarsine. This substance caused sneezing and W’as a respiratory irritant; it forced troops against whom it was employed to remove their gas-masks and expose them to other lethal gases. Samples of this substance were soon added to the small museum at the special brigade headquarters. What followed is interesting: “One of my officers, Sisson, in a spirit of investigation, put a pinch of D.A., which had been extracted from a German shell, on the hotplate of a stove in his room at my headquarters. A Remarkable Result. “The result was so remarkable that everyone was driven out of the house immediately, and it was found that the latest pattern of German mask, even when fitted with the extension that had been supplied to give protection against Blue Cross shells, gave no protection whatever against the D.A. cloud produced in this way.” Steps were at once taken to ascertain how the gas could be volalalised in the most effective and penetrant form by bringing it into contact with heat evolved from chemicals. A “thermo-generator” was soon designed; it consisted of a tin containing the D.A. and the heating mixture in separate compartments.

New Gas Weapon. In Hie course of investigation an sven more suitable compound,- diplienylarninc chlorarsine, was discovered. The “.M” device, as the new weapon in gas warfare was called, liberated an arsenic particulate cloud which could be depended upon to incapacitate the enemy completely, if only temporarily. The gas was not lethal: “Its possibilities were such that even at the risk of Die war ending without the opportunity of using it, it must bo kept in the background until vast quantities had been accumulated in France. This was .the 1 most effective chemical weapon ever devised.” This gas was never used in France. If it had been properly and fully exploded it would have had a more imporlanl bearing on the course of the war than any other measure that was put lo a practical I rial on (he baltlc11cId or that was even considered. No Longer a Secret. It is no longer a secret. The gas was used at Archangel after the ArmJslicc, but not in Iho manner originally intended. In densely forested country Ihe containers bad lo be dropped from aeroplanes, but even so the gas was very effective. General Fmilkes admits that pariiculale clouds of Ibo nalurc contemplated would have lost a good deal of their value after a few weeks, as soon as a new German respiral or had been designed and manufactured. But the possibilities had been only pnrtlv explored. A Grave Warning.

“There is grave danger,” writes General Foulkcs, “in the belief that the continued use of gas can be prevented by agreement: its infinite possibilities in a scientific age preclude any such hope.”

No alarmist and imaginative prophecy concerning the use of poison gas in I lie fill lire is nearly so disquieting as this sober, nulliorilalive account of ! 1 1 0 horrors devised during the war. and Ihe terrible weapons that remained in reserve—and llial can be brought into play at slmrl. notice.