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Hokitika Guardian, 14 July 1921, Page 2

Ik Australia and New Zealand desire any* largely increased naval protection in the Pacific they must be prepared to put their hands in their pockets and pay for it. That is the principal fact, that emerges from the naval debate at the Imperial Conference comments an exchange. Until the outcome of the disarmament conference with America, and Japan is known it does not seem tluil definite plans for naval defence can be usefully formulated for submission to the various Dominions. Should an agreement- be reached to cease further expenditure on naval armaments, for a period .of years—as everybody hopes it will be-the burden all round will be greatv lightened. The decisions to he reached on the renewal of the Treaty with Japan must also a fleet the situation. The section either in Britain or the Dominions which -desires a huge Navy as a big stick to he shaken in the face of all nations is not large. The section which desires a. naval protection adequate to secure the British Commonwealth against all - potential enemies comprises the great majority of its citizens who have given the matter any serious thought. The three nations whose navies count —Britain, the United States, and Japan are agreed in principle upon a limitation of armaments. ft lias still to be discovered whether they can reach agreement upon the much more difficult question of the practical 'steps to be taken to give effect to that principle. Until the cards are on the, table and the air has been cleared, British naval policy can only he a matter of watchful waiting.

Tine use of poisonous gas at the end of the world war “was a child’s gamecompared to what it will be in the future.” Brigadier-General Amos A. Fries chief of the chemical warfare service, declared at the annual dinner of that service held in Washington. General Fries descrived in detail two of the American Army’s most powerful gases and the method of using them. These are the “toxic smoke candle” and a liquid gas called tlie *‘dew of death.” Sneaking of the toxic smoke candle, h ( > said thfl old type blond gas that Involv-

ed the burying of cylinders in deep trenches, requiring the work of many men for many days to prepare an attack, was obsolete. The modern method, whereby the poison gas is generated by heating a solid, was a totally different matter. The solid was safe and foolproof. It might he cuushed, mashed, or punctured with bullets and shells without harm. It was only when the fuse was lighted and the heating mixture was working that the gases were driven off. If three drops of this liquid gas were absorbed into the skin it would cause death in most cases, while lesser quantites down to probably one-tenth would put every man in hospital. This gas, and the common mustard gas, which likewise burns the skin, could he sprinkled from aeroplanes in practically unlimited quantities. Thus entire fields, forests, camps, and railroad centres may he covered with the “dew of death.”