Evening star., 1939-10-14
BY KURT DOBERER.

| LoA>AclN, wv IL '1N IN a. --IS
| there anything at all In Hitlers
| threat at Danzig that he would an
swer Britain's blockade with a
devastating secret weapon against
which there is no defense?
Hitler is curious kind of liar:
he always believes what he says
when he is saying it. His pledged
word is worthless. because he
changes his mind as soon as cir
cumstances change. But when he
alleges physical fact, the prob
ability is that there is something
in what he says.
Thus, if he swears that he will
live at peace with Poland TOR Italy
or Russia, changing circumstances
will soon prove he is a liar. But
if he says he has a secret weapon,
at least he thinks he has.
Distinction between the Hitler
brand of circumstantial lying and
the Goebbels brand of deliberate
lying is important.
So Hitler thinks he has a secret
weapon. He may be mistaken. He
would not be the first leader to
imagine that he had vital mill
tary secret only to find later that
the secret is known to his oppo-
nents.
The Five Secret Weapons.
Early in 1885, Col. Won Hassel-
bach, military attache to Goebbels.
tried to frighten the world by an
nouncing that Germany had five
deadly secret weapons. What did
the dark secret amount to?
The secret" weapons were:
A bullet that would penetrate
any armor. In this instance
several countries had forestalled
Germany
A very light, quick firing ma
chine gun. This was the Bren
gun and Czecho-S -Slovakia had
got in first
An anti-aircraft gun with null
tiple barrels. Several other
countries shared this secret
An aerial torpedo which could
travel 200 miles. This was, in
fact. first invented in the U. S. A.
Ray 1.-THE ray which could
stop an internal-combustion en-
CINE This secret also was
shared. And. anyway. the ray,
though effective when dealing
with a nearby motor car engine,
has never been effective against
an airplaneD
So that pat hand, in which Hitler
doubtless believed at the time,
amounted to nothing.
Now let us see if we can get on
the track of the new secret"
Attack on Morale.
First of all, We need to ask what
kind of thing would interest Hitler.
This is easy to answer. Hitler is q
disciple of Clausewitz, father of all
German militarists. And Clause
witz, supported later by Ludendorff,
insists that what happens at the
front is of secondary Importance to
the attack on the enemy's morale in
the hinterland at home.
Next we will look into the kinds of
experiment in which Hitler has
shown special interest during the
last year or so. Again We have the
answer. He has been profoundly in
terested in the experiments of mill
tary chemists with dusts to be scat
tered instead of bombs by high fly
ing airplanes.
Research in this direction has been
elaborate. Much of it has been un-
der the direction of Prof. DR.. A.
Schmid at the Kaiser Wilhelm In
stitute in Berlin. One of the dusts
prepared is mixture of poison gas
with siliceous earth. From this dust
the poison gas evaporates slowly
over a period of days and even
weeks.
Here is a vile weapon, indeed, but
the deterrent is one that Hitler must
take seriously-that the use of It
means undisguised attack on civil
ians, the price of which is the whole
worlds hatred and vengeance. There
is the peril, too, of reprisals.
Panic c-Spreading Weapon.
So Hitler's chemists have turned
their attention to dust which shall
contain panic-spreading irritant in
stead of a poison.
There Is another kind of dust in
which Prof. Schmid is interested.
Basically it consists of iron ground
so finely that it could be ignited
with a match. This is mixed with
chemicals 50 as to become self
igniting IN free air. Scattered from
EI Cx-Is r