Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-10
Continued From Third Page.l

the greatest number and not the in
dtvidual of the greatest genius VIII win
the final victory, this is the affrighten-
ing prospect that beggars the nnagin-
alton. ,
"The modern soldier must knowingly
cut down and murder women, children
and the sick: he must, in making a
cowardly attack upon them In their
sleep. annihilate human beings unaware
of their fate"
And how is all this to be done?
(Which disgusts, must admit. the au-
thor Of "The War of Gases" but In
which. nevertheless. he would be willing
to take part, he also admits, should the
occasion present itSelf) oh, in the
simplest way. will quote the English
specialist Maj Nye: "A Thousand
bombs" he says. would be enough IN
favorable circumstances to gas a city
like London. The ordinary bomb, ne
adds, weighs about 5 pounds; 1t Is,
therefore. not a case Of the enormous
bombs of former times. Consequently
moder-, commercial airplane can
carrv 6n7 of these bombs. Thus we see
that Eny commercial atrplane whatever
can now be used for war purposes ana
that only two of these planes would be
able to gas an area as great as that OF
London and suburbs.
Effect Of Airplanes.
The inspector general of German
aviation, Lieut.. Col. Siegert says, Tor
his part, In the Berliner Illustrierte
Zeitling: ut is a fact which cannot
henceforward be overlooked, q handful
of airplanes Is capable OF reducing to
ashes the metropolis of a great power"
And now we have all these assertions
confirmed in report, prudently word
I'd. no doubt. but sufficiently explicit,
presented by Prof. Meyer at the League
Of Nations.
There is" we read. "a very impor-
tant aspect of chemical war, viz. the
possibility of utilizing poisonous gases
against large cities and the centerS OF
life of the belligerents. However
reprehensihle such conduct may be,
there would be no technical difficulty in
having bombs filled with poisonous
gases dropped onto places essential to
the political or economical life Of enemy
countries"
What more do we want? Who will
dare to deny the immensely of the dan
ger the masses would be exposed to in
the case of q new clash Of peoples?
But this reprehenSible conduct" to
use the words of Prof. Meyers there
no way of preventing It?
How? Let us see.
Prohibiting the manufacture of pol
sonous gases? This question was dealt
with by the war committee at the
League of Nations. A committee was
formed to study chemical warfare, corr
sisting of four members, together with
five highly qualified experts. 1t was
unanimously admitted that ut did not
seem possible to prevent in a general
VIC hn ~
which are now being made" And this
can be understood. These gases are
current products of industry, or at least
they are the essential Intermediates in
obtaining other products In constant use.
Prohibition Worthless.
Prohibiting the utilization of these
gases Tor the purposes OF warp Alas,
we know the worthleSsness of such pro-
hibition. We were able to note. between
1914 and 1918, the perfect contempt
with which the formal instructions of
the convention of The Hague were re-
garded. It will be Just the same as
long as the present general frame of
mind continues. Mr.. Endres is right
when he says, in the book already
quoted: Considering the state Of mind
OF military governments, the existence
in the collective souls of each nation Of
the nationalist theology, I consider it
certain that any agreement prohibiting
the employment of poisonous gases will
not be observed"
If there are no practical means Of
taking away this power. not OF fighting
but Of destruction, cannot the civil pop
ulation be protected?
Let us examine the question!
To protect towns against the fall of
gas bombs thrown from airplanes APP
pears impossible. Every city would