The daily sentinel., 1908-05-19
WILL THIS GUN MAKE
ENGLAND WORLD RULER?
Most Remarkable Instrument of Dc
struction Ever Inventcd-Tear
DreadnOughts to Pieces-WilI
Shoot From London to
Paris

William True Hawthorne, in a
dispatch sent out from London
on Sunday states that the Brit
iSh public Is much wrought up
| over the question as to whether
the new. Simpson electrical gun
tile cannon which IL is prom
ised will shoot "a projcctile from
London to Paris-is to remain
the secret of the British war Of
flee or whether all militant ma
tfOns are TO have use of the
revolutionary invention.
Mr.. Simpson, the inventor, has had
nothing to say but Colonel Maude, of
the Royal artillery, the original and
still the chief champion of the Simp-
son gun, has intimated that for the
present, at least, the secret will re-
main with the British government
If the gun will do all that is claim
ed for it-and experts who at first
scoffed are now more than half con-
vinced 1t will-the possibilities of it's
exclusive ownership are so vast as to
stagger the Imagination. Four of
these guns, provided other nations
had not and could not get them,
would make Great Britain absolute
master of the world. Two of them
mounted on elevated ground, one in
the south and the other in the north
of Great Britain, would be sufficient
to repel an invasion for which the
world had united. Two others aboard
ship, one for the Atlantic and one for
the Pacific, would make the most
powerful navies afIoat useless heaps
of junk.
Aided by modern range finders,
one of these guns would put an entire
fleet out of commission before the
enemy ever got within striking dis
tance. The Spanish army never
would have sailed for British waters
had England then been the sole
possessor of single fighting craft
of the Dreadnought type. Similarly
fleet of Dreadnoughtss would have
no more show in front of battery
of Simpson guns than the Spanish
modern ironclads.
should Great Britain alone possess
the secret of this gun, no nation nor
any group of nations could make
war upon her. The worlds peace
would be established then and there,
for 1t is not conceivable that Great
Britain would play the roil-of ruth
less conqueror. 1t also is claimed for
the Invention that even were all na-
uons free to use it, war would be
made SO terrible as to be impossible.
The history of warfare, however.
does not bear out this supposition.
The Simpson gun, terrible as are its
possibilities. Is scarcely greater ad-
vance over the guns of the Dread
nought or modern coast defense
piece than are the Drea dn ought's
guns. and armor over the wooden
hulls and brass cannon with which
Philip of Spain, sent, the incompetent
duke of Medina Sidonia to battle
against Drake and Howard. The
mind. Of course, cannot grasp the
possibility of a battle with $50 Dread
noughts on each side. but it is open
to question even whether an engage
ment between modern battleships
would be any more deadly than was
that fight in the English channel
more than 800 years ago. The bleak
coasts of Scotland and Ireland. by
which route Sidonia tried to escape, |
were strewn with the wrecks of his |
ships and so many of the bodies. of |
his sailors washed ashore that they
became menace to the health of the |
Inhabitants. The battle of the sea |
Of Japan, the greatest of modern |
naval engagements. had no such story |
to tell. .is'
All this. however, is academic. The