East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1922-07-17
british At MERCY Of
GAS AND. FIRE. WEAPONS.
px cHAs. EDWARD MoEIus

BY CHAS. EDWARD NORRIS
Omitted Press Staff Correspondent
LONDON, July 17.-U. P)-
England is today at the mercy OF
the first hostile power that chooses
to attack her from the air!
Such is the cry of warning being
insistently sounded by armament ex-
perts in the London press.
former member of the Allied
Commission to Germany has public
ly declared that that country is now
armed with incendiary and poison-gas
bombs which in one raid would pa
ralyse the very heart of the British
Empire and bring a horrible death.
to most of London'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
aeroplane. A fleet of aeroplanes
would carry sufficient to set all Lon
don afire, past any hope of saving"
So grave is the menace alleged
from the "pitiful inadequacy' of
England's ari force, that pressure is
being brought to bear upon the gov
ernment by the proponents of aerial
preparedness. 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 Ver-
sailes, the Germans are secretly
manufacturing tons of fire and gas
bombs. These terrible engines of
death and destruction, say officials
who have examined some of those
confiscated in Germany, are thou
sand times more deadly. than the
most vivid imaginings of fiction.
They are of two kinds, fncendiary
and poison gas.
Incendiary Bombs.
The incendiary bombs are in the
form of metal cylinders about nine
inches long and two inches in dia-,
meter. They weigh less than a
pound apiece. The cylinder is made
of a material called elektron, con-
siderably lighter and stronger than
aluminium. The composition of this
metal is closely guarded German
secret. The bombs are filled with
a powder called therinite, which ig
| mites when the bomb strikes the
ground. The thermite and elektron
! then fuse together and form an in-
candescent mass of white-hot metal
[ that will melt it's way through ar
mour-plating. Nothing can cNtingu-
ish it. A pinch of the powder ig-
nitcd on Il peuknife blade caused the
metal to run like candle wax.
The poison-g gas bomb, even more
terrible than the fire bomb, is simply
glass globe, four inches in diameter,
filled with a dark brown liquid.
which, when liberated, generates
thousands of cubic feet of deadly
gas. Escape from it's death-dealingF
fumes, which are able to penetrate
even into cellars. Easements and un-
derground railways, would be im-
possible.
1t is stated here that just before
the armistice the German high COM
mand openly boasted that the per-
fection of the elektron bomb gave
them the means successfully to end
the war. British threats of retaiia-
tion in kind were the only deterrent
ICo the carrying out OF the DOaSt.
4 England's Threat.
i IF the English secret service had
mot discovered that the Germans
were making these bombs," say the
public men now fighting for the re-
establishment of England's lost as
cendancy in the air, London or
Paris might have been annihilated by
a single flotilla or bombing planes"
1T was only our threat to destroy
a German town for every such bomb
dropped in England-and the ability
of our air forces to back up that
threat-that gave us the whip hand"
Now that our air force has sunk
into such dangerous inferiority, we
no longer have that whip hand. We
must lost no time in regaining it.
The nations safety demands instant
action on the part of the govern
ment." 10. a