Washington Conference.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 January 1922, Page 2

Washington Conference.

CABLE NEWS. ;

(From the Special Representative of tho Australian Press Association.)

LAWS OF WAR

POISONS INTERDICTEU

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6.

It is officially reported that the Com mittee on the Limitation ot Aikuiinents, after a discussion of the following resolution decided to approve of it:—

“The signatory Powers, desiring to ensure the enforcement of humane rules and the existing laws of war, ns declared by them in respect of attacks upon, and seizure, and destruction of, merchant ships, further declare that any Power who shall violate any of those rules, .whether or not such poisons are under a Governmental superior, shall be deemed to have violated the laws of war, and shall he liable for trial and punishment as if for an act of piracy, and they may be brought to trial before the civil and military authorities of any Power within the jurisdiction wherein they may 0 found.”

QUESTION OF GASSES

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6

At the Limitation of Armaments Committee discussion, after a resolution on piracy had been passed, the Chairman introduced the use of gas. lie read a report by the Conference Committee. hi addition to the points already cabled the Committee pointed out that it is possible, though it will be with greater difficulty, to confine action to chemical gasses as in t)ie case of explosives. The committee felt that thenuse should he wholly prohibited against combatants. It was pointed out that the United States, French and Imtish representatives on the Sub-Conimit.ee, who know gas, are emphatic in condemning chemical warfare and gasses as a form and method of waging wai. They pointed out the frightful consequences of poisoning, if dropped from aeroplanes, and the impossibility of confining gases to any particular target as in artillery use. Alt Elihu Root explained he bad drafted a resolution in the language of tho Treaty of Versailles, which was subscribed to by four out of the five Powers at the present conference and had been taken over by the United States. . Tlte resolution reads as tollovvs. “That the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous and analogous liquids, and materials and devices, having been justly condemned by general opinion ot the civilised world, and the prohibitum of such uses having been declared ■■ treaties, whereto the majority of the civilised Powers are parties, is now to end; and that this prohibition shall universally be accepted as u part of International Law binding alike on the conscience and practice of the nations. The signatory Powers declare their assent to such a prohibtion and agree to be bound thereby between themselves, and invite all other civilised rations to adhere thereto.”