“Diabolical Inventions.”

Hokitika Guardian, 24 May 1922, Page 1

“Diabolical Inventions.”

WHAT OF Til K NEXT WAR ? WKI/UXOTOX, -May ii(). | “So interlocked nml interdependent has the world become.” said Mr F. Milner, in bis powerful address at the Secondary Schools’ Association yesterday. “ not only through the scientific annilliliatinn of space by wireless and bv aviation, but primarily through the world-wide ramifications ot commerce, that henceforth there can be no national isolation. Henceforth all wars will be civil wars. The fates and fortunes of all nations arc indissolubly linked together. The resources of man- . kind are again concentrating inventive 1 genius on the provision of such ghastly engines of destruction that the economic and siii ial system of modern lite will be unable to inert tbe strain, i “The latest diabolical inventions of destructive militarism, namely, elaboration of Lewisite gas, wirelessly-con-trolled aerial torpedoes, increasingly formidable types of guns and submarines. witness that the next, war will lie a nightmare of horrors. \\ bole civilinn populations will be wiped out iu:t singlo night by aerial bombs capable of containing bilge concentrated charges of T.N.T. or lip to one ton of hew isite. This latest devilish weapon of warfare a. compound of acetylene with solution of arsenic trichloride—passes through the clothes and flesh ol the virtim to the lungs and burns tbe victim to death lxit.li from within and without. It must lie remembered that war is no longer a matter of professional soldiering, but tbe whole human and economic resources of tbe combatants must la- (lung into the scales. Another great international conflict most inevitably shatter civilisation as we know it, and relegate mankind again to a cvcle of barbarism.”