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Hokitika Guardian, 28 November 1933, Page 4

‘T>: recent months I have had an unease feeling ,which I think is shared by a great many people, that the Disarmament Conference is spending its time im things that are really irrelevant to the keeping of peace. The fear which' hangs over the world arises mainly from the prospect of a new kind of war—the war from the' air, the war with chemicals, the war with bacilli,” writes Mr J. A. Spender in the News Chronicle. “The question which haunts one is whether, if all the big conventional armaments had been

reduced, a nation which had made a special study t ot chemical warfare might not sail have its neighbours at its mercy ,and whether there are any l-'ossible precautions that could be taken against it. It seems to be acknowledged‘that there is no defence against this form of warfare except reprisals. The French could not defend Paris; they could only attack Berlin; we could not defend London; we coukl only attack the enemy capital. The logic of this kind of warfare would carry up methodically to the destruction of each other’s cities and all that we count ;| s civilisation. The only question would be which of us could stand it longest. To-day in Germany text-books are being prescribed for young children in which it is declared to be a patriotic duty to practise this savagery up to the utmost limits, even to scatter the germs of plague and typhus upon neighbouring peoples. That is the really ominqus fact. As a beginning we need a much more careful estimate than w. e . yet have of the actual dangers of the new kind, of war. Is it or it is not exaggerated? Are we really threatened in the manner suggested, or is the danger exaggerated? It should be one of the first duties of a scientific Disarmament Commission to inform us exactly on this subject.”