THE NEXT WAR.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 November 1921, Page 4

THE NEXT WAR.

A (.’HIM RHKNCII FOR lit 'AST. i Urnm (I. Ward I’iiie). PA HIS. Are intelligent deleusivc precautions being taken against the tcitible weapons which will be used in the next wary

That is the burden ol a rcmarkahV piece of imaginative writing by M. Alphonse Scchc, a Kivni'h novelist who wrote a realistic story ol the ho. tors ol the last campaign called "Mars ol Hell.”

lie argues that armies ate out ol dale. Thanks to aerial lighting, the distinction between combatants and iiiin-cnmhatants lias vanished. lue whole nation must ili'feuil i’.scll :t' a nation. Vet- lie maintains Ihc military mind hates novelty, pielei ring to appiv rules based on known cimditioux of the past rather than face new possibilities.

Ilis story is called "The host Attack : Hv it Survivor.” It is published 1 1 v t!a> literary weekly l.a Kevin* lleh(lomndaiic anil describes the total destruction of Paris by a sudden mass raid of enemy aeroplanes, dining an international crisis, befone declaration 111 Will. Without warning, out of a calm midnight sky, 300 giant aeroplanes living in lines of 2.1, at intervals of 200 yards, appear above tin* capital, while an advance guard of 30 more attacks the militaiv aerodromes sin rounding Paris lo keep defending machines from ris-

Tin.* first wsivo of iho nttnek drops Itondis, driving the p:inic-stricken jxipuhue into the cellars. Then come (SO machines scattering poison-gas, and (ill more spreading ineemliaiy liquids to complete the destruction. The author gives a vivid imaginary picture at Paris the morning after its devastation. Ruins rendered unrecognisable by a coat of yellow ashes; the nave of Notre Dame gone, so that the toners seemed strangely increased in height ; the Louvre only a mound ol debris, except for its colonnade, lying in incongruous harmony ol outline across the tragic scent.

••On t.hev surface of the swollen Seine Honied objects and materials of every land—motor-lorries, furniture, motor-

omnibuses, roofs, carts, planks, trees, corpses of men, women, children, dogs, horses. Some, still alive, were trying to reaeli the banks, calling desperately for unlikely help. The Chatrlet bridge was broken anil two teli'si'iqied tram-way-cars dangled from it. One arch remained of I lie Root St Michel, The dome of the lnvalides still stood, hut tbe Kill'd Tower was leaning over, icmlv to 1:. 11.”

The President of tlu> Republic, tin* Prime .Minister, :tnil six nu*mln*i s ol tin* Cabinet were !<illt*il : tin* Ministries of War, Marine, and tin* Interior destroyed. Era nee was paralysed, defeated, decapitated, before she had had the chance tu si l ike a blow. "Those who fail to foresee, those who are too slack to organise, and those also who, through sentimental blindness, tefuse to believe that war will come attain—all hear the same responsibility,’' concludes this Ktencli writer. "If the country goes under, no men culpa will atone for their misdeeds of absolve them Iroip the blood unjustly silt'd,”