The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-07-15
FEAR OF AIR RAIDS
IN FUTURE CAUSING
WORRY TO ENGLAND
ey cHAs. EDWARD MORRIS

BY cHAS. EDWARD MORRIS
Omitted Press Staff Correspondent |
LONDON, July 15.-"England is to-
day at the mercy of the first hostile
power that CLOSES to attack her from |
the air!"
Such is the cry of warning being in
sistently sounded by armament ex-
perts in the London press.
A former member Of the allied COM
mission to Germany has publicly de-
clared that that country is now armed
with incendiary and poison gas bombs
which in one raid would paralyze the
very heart of the British Empire and
bring a horrible death to most of Lon
don's citizens. The bombs to which
l refer exist now, at this moment, and,
were war declared, could and would
| be used tomorrow.
| Any power may use them at any
moment. So small and light are they
| that thousands of them could be car
ried by any average-sized commercial
airplane. A fleet of airplanes would
carry sufficient to set all London afire,
past any hope of saving"
J So grave is the menace alleged from
the ''pitiful inadequacy" Of England's
air force, that pressure is being
| brought to bear upon the government
/ by the proponents of aerial prepared
ness. Editorial writer's are devoting
columns to the situation in the great
national dailies.
! Some military experts declare that,
in defiance Of the Treaty of Versailles,
! e NfYJ
ing tons of fire and gas bombs. These
terrible engines of death and destruc-
ton, say officials who have examined
some of those confscated in Germany,
are a thousand times more deadly
than the most vivid imaginings Of fic-
ton. They are of two kinds, incen-
diary and poison gas.
lncendiary Bombs
The incendiary bombs are in the
form of metal cylinders, about nine
: inches long and two inches in diam
t eter. They weigh less than a 3-pound
piece. The cylinder is made of a metal
, called eleftron, considerably lighter
than aluminium. The composition OF
! this metal is a closely guarded Ger
: man secret. The bombs are filled with
powder called thermite, which ig-
mites when the bomb strikes the
ground. The thermite and elektron
!. then fuse together and form an mean
y descent mass of white-hot metal that
will melt its way through armour plat
;, ing. Nothing can extinguish it. A
pinch Of powder ignited on a penknife
: blade caused the metal to run like can,
= die wax.
The poison-gas bombs, even more
/ terrible than the fire bombs, is simply
a glass globe, four inches in diameter
:. filed with dark brown liquid, which
p when liberated, generates thousands OF
! cubic feet of deadly gas. Escape from
n its death-dealing fumes, which are able
a to penetrate even into cellars, base
g ments and underground railways
t would be impossible.
4 1t is stated here that just before the
a arnistice the German high command
r openly boosted that the perfection O.
!, the elektron bomb gave them the
d means successfully to end the war
: British threats of retaliation in KIND
were the only deterrent to the carry
J. ing out of the boast.
= England's Threat
e 'If the English secret service haC
d not discovered that the Germans were
S making these bombs" say the public
i men HOW uSHtlng lot lne re-eSLdDIlSH
n ment of England's lost ascendancy il
the air, London or Paris might have
been annihilated by single f1otilla o.
bombing planes"
at was only our threat to destro!
German town for every such boml
j dropped in England-and the abilit!
of our air forces to back up that threa
that gave us the whip hand"
Now that our air force has sunk in
> to such dangerous inferiority we NJ
Is longer have that whip hand. We mus
=, lose no time in regaining it. The ma
4 TONS safety demands instant actor
-, on the part of the government"