Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-25

selves against the employment of pro-
jectileS the only object of which was
to give forth suffocating or poisonous
gases. This action had created a feel
ing Of security regarding such a posi-
bility.
Germany had subscribed to the agree
ment, and when her armies disregard
ed this pledge and became the first to
use gas shells the impression was that
they had now thrown every consid-
Grafton of humanity to the winds.
Use Became Common.
This action by the enemy forced
the allies to adopt this weapon them
selves as a matter of self-protection
From that time on the employment
of gas became common to all COM
batants.
The use Of gas in warfare presented
an entirely new problem to us, and the
organization of service to handle
it demanded immediate attention. The
first plan of the War Department pro-
vided that the Engineers should de-
wise and handle the mechanical fea-
lures and the Medical Department the
chemical, but this soon proved to be
impractical and 1t became evident that
as we had maintained at the beginning
a separate service would be necessary
Meanwhile application was made fol
a complete chemical laboratory to bs
shipped to France for use mainly In
investigation as supplementary to SINH
lar work in the States.
Considerable information concerning
gases and the organization Of ga;
troops had been gathered by my staff
and on August 18 Lieut.. Col. Amos A
Fries was designated as chief of tht
Gas Service. He made some further
| investigation of the subject in thu
| British and French armies, and as 6
result an order issued September 3 es'
tablished a department known at tina
time as the Gas Service.
Experiments we're at once begun tx
discover new gases and devise improve
ment in gas masks. To save tonnage
and avoid the dangers of explosion II
| transit, 1t was decided, after conSulta-
ton with the allied services, to request
the shipment from the States of thu
basic elements and manufacture thu
chemical products in France. Aftel
thorough tests of different types of ga!
masks we adopted the box respiratol
used by the British, and a preliminary
! purchase of 100000 was made to NEE
immediate demands for training.
| With the development of trench
weapons and special tactical method:
of defense, never had the offensive
been more costly in human life than ir
this war. The ingenuity of the allies
was put to the test to devise new en-.
gines of war that would make the at.
tack possible without excessive losses
Accepted Allied Experience.
While the tank. which was simply ar
armored caterpillar traction motor car
was favored by many officers as an aic
to advancing infantry, this opinion was
by no means unanimous. Our investi-
cations, however, led to the conclusion
| that we should accept allied experience
and also adopt the tank as weapon.
Both the French Qight) Renault
weighing tons, and the British
(heavy) Mark VI tanks of 80 tons, APP
peared useful according to circum-
stances, and it was estimated that we
should have at least 200 of the former
and 600 of the latter.
Negotiations for their procurement
were begun with the respective gov
ernmentS, and it was found that the
French wanted us to manufacture 2000
RenaultS for them. AS there was little
or no prospect of our obtaining tanks
| abroad their manufacture at home was
recommended and full details of re-
quirements were accordingly cabled to
Washington.
Tomorrow: Pershing celebrates fifty
seventh birthday but notes little prog
ress in getting our Army assembled.
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