Unfair Methods of Fighting

Horowhenua Chronicle, 21 May 1915, Page 4

Unfair Methods of Fighting

OUR THURSDAY'S ARTICLE. In our first edition on Thursday our leading article was marred through, several lines being dropped. The full text is reprinted below: — In our issue of Saturday we had some remarks upon breaches of the Hague Convention occasioned by Germany through her use of asphyxiating gases in the present war. The subject is so serious a one that it is difficult to touch upon without heat, but inasmuch as our opinion on the German breaches of the Hague Convention have been given already we think an impersonal survey of the general custom in past ware may be informative for our readers and. not inapropos. When Great Britain, in her war against the.Boers, used lyddite shells there was no Hague Convention rule against such practice; and as we made clear on Saturday, we doubt if there is .any truth in the English cablegram of a few months ago to the effeot that r rencli shells charged with "turpinite" were used in one engagement to an extent that asphyxiated German soldiers in their trenches. The Germans' action in making general use of

asphyxiating gases of deadly nature j comes into a different category, through the repetitive nature of the offences and the extra-deadly quality of the poisons used in oharging the shells. Books of reference in respect of manufacturing asphyxiating compounds show that the number of substances which can be used in considerable, and in some cases large quantities, are easily manufactured at a small oost. fire" was in ancient times employed by both Greeks and Romans, and it was also largely used during the wars of the Christians and Saracens. It was composed of sulphur, nitre, pitch, and asphalt. When burned it was attended ■with a thick, suffocating smoke, fierce flame on which water had little effect in 6iibduing, and it was employed with equal effect on sea and land. A 60-callcld "Greek fire"—probably a solution of phosphorus in bi-sulphide of carbon, was used in the siege of Charleston, U.S.A., in the year 1863. "Stink-pots" were largely Used by the Chinese in early times, and even up to tha present day are occasionally employed by Chinese pirates. The designation "stink-pot" really covers the vessel or bomb and its contents; the latter may be chemical substances, mainly sulphur, nitre, and resin, which yield when burned, offensive and suffocating gases, or earthen vessels containing organic matter rich in sulphuretted hydrogen, and frequently made more abominable by the addition of decaying fish offal. In comparatively recent times chemicals of definite composition have been employed for like purposes, and these preparations may be classiHe 3 under three heads:—(l) Volatile which, when liberated from. say. an exploded shell or vessel, emit inconceivably disgusting odours and properties noxious to health. (2) Chemical compounds extremely volatile, the vapours partly asphyxiating, with odours penetrating. absolutely insufferable, and deadly poisonous. (3) Chemical compounds readily gasified, -which, in the presence of air and moisture, yield fumes intensely irritating to the mucous membrane. and producing rapid asphyxiation.