GAS MASKS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 215, 30 May 1918, Page 6

GAS MASKS

ALWAYS AT THE "READY. ,

Within a certain, distance of the lino everyone must wear his gad-mask satchel round his neck just under his chin, in tho "ready" position, writes Mr. Hamilton, Fyfe, in the London "Daily Mail." Special sentries are posted wherever gas attack is likely. They give warning by striking gongs or making other noises recognised at onco as -danger-signals. Instantly tho masks are dragged out and put on. They must be kept on until the order of release is given, until all risk has passed. Eating.with them on is difficult, To tarry on any sustained conversation is next-door to impossible when you are holding a large piece of rubber between your teeth. Attempts at it remind mo always of the pitiful efforts of two poor fellows in a - Eumanian hospital at Craiova to tell mo how their longuea had been cut out by Hungarian hussars. Nevertheless, a certajn amount of talking must be done. Hunger must be appeased. Also orders and reports must be written. It can be imagined that tho brain does not work very freely when your mouth is filled with rubber, your noso firmly held in a clip, and your eyes look out through small windows (the eye-piecos of tho mask) which are constantly being dimmed. Yet men have had to keep their gasmasks on almost continuously for weeks. Some have even been obliged to try to sleep in them, tho most depressing experience of all. Gas-mask drill was once considered rather a joke. Now it is taken very seriously. All nnderetand that upon Ihe proper and rapid uso of this protection life or death may depend. The man who is slow or careless risks losing his. eyesight or his lungs. Six seconds is the time allowed for fitting the mask on at drill. But a sergeant in a trench which had been gassed a little whilo before toid me the other day: "You wouldn't have believed men could bo so lively wi';h their respirators. I never, saw anything so quick. Four seconds was their timo instead of six."

I was gas-drilled by a fine, upstanding Scotsman. Peace occupation, minister of tho Scottish Church; war duty, divisional gas officer. He explained everything to us most clearly and genially, and then insisted on the squad going through every motion "just so." "On the alarm being given, push your steel helmet off from tho back* with tho left hand: With tho right hand taken out the respirator and fit the mask on. Not finite smart enough! Once more—now: Ready!" When wo had proved ourRelves "smart enough" wo were sent into a "gas-chamber," a slied full of tearcompelling fumes, and kept there for several minutes with instructions to come out at once if we felt any pniii or inconvenience. None of us did, barring that caused !>y the masks themselves. We knew therefore (here were- no flaws in them. If there had been we should have quickly found it out. We ran through tho shod afterward", without our masks, "just to see what tliey protected you from," the gas officer said. Tho pain in the eyes wns instant and intense. Mine smarted for an hour.