The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-06-24
EFFECTS OF POISON GASES.
Gen. Stuart-Wortley Tells of Victims
Agony.

In a letter recently received in this
city, Major General the Hon. Edward
! Stuart-W -Wortley, commanding a Brit
| ish army corps nSFrance, describes
! the horrors of death from the as
phyxiating gases used by the German
troops. The strong expressions EN-
ployed in the letter gain additional
point from the fact that General
-Wortley was formerly on
terms of considerable intimacy with
the kaiser, and when. few sum-
mers ago, Emperor William was or
dered by his physicians to spend sew
eral weeks at the seashore in the
South of England. the general placed
at his disposal his country seat on
the hemisphere coast. General
Stuart -Wortley's letter follows:
You will of course have read OF
the fighting that has been going on
round Ypres just lately, and of the
magnificent behavior of the Canadian
division. In their attacks on
the Ypres salient the Germans made
use of asphyxiating gas. This gas is
disseminated both in shells and
bombs and also from cylinders, which
are buried in the trenches with their
nozzles pushed through the parapets.
The taps of the cylinders are then
turned on, and the gas, which is, as
far as We know, chlorine, is pumped
out. The gas, which is heavier than
air, and which is blown by the wind
across our lines, sinks into our
trenches, and kills or incapacitates
any men who happen to be in them.
The effect of the gas can also be felt
as far back as five. or six miles and
produces headache and smarting of
the eyes.
The German papers, as we'll as
falsely accusing us of making use OF
poisonous fumes, apparently defend
their conduct by stating that the dis
semination of this gas results in a
swift and painless death for those
with whom it comes in contact, and
consequently is less barbarous than
subiecting men to an inferno of she'll
fire from which great physical and
mental torture must necessarily be
endured.
Il am sure the public cannot have
as yet the slightest idea of this last
damnable effort on the part of the
Germans to disregard all laws of hu-
manity and civilization:
Il have seen our men in hospitals
after having been brought back from
the trenches. There is no need to ask
for the ward in which they are, as
their groaning is quite sufficient di-
rection of itself. In one ward there
are IS cases. They are all sitting
bolt upright, or swaying backward
and forward, gasping for breath;
their faces, hands, and necks a shiny
gray-black color, their eyes glazed,
and unable absolutely to speak or
eat.
1T takes two days for these men
to die. During these two days they
are in the most acute agony, and if
by the slightest chance they recover
from the poison. they will in all
probability be rendered useless for
life, as the effect of the gas is to
turn all the tissues Of the lung into
liquid. The doctors and nurses are
working day and night in the at
tempt to give some relief. But there
is nothing to be done. 1t is the most
hopeless, helpless, sickening sight
imaginable. Our chief medical Of
ficer, who has had very large ex-
perience of the habits of Africans
and Asiatic natives, tells US that in
all his life he has never had to deal
with such an example Of scientific
torture.
AT first I was inclined to disbe-
lieve the accounts of the ill-treatment
of our prisoners at the hands of the
enemy and to put them down to the
inevitable eXaggerations of warfare,
but now that I have come face to
face with German methods in the
field, my opinions have undergone
gradual but permanent change. -
New York World.