AIR DEFENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2060, 27 November 1919, Page 2

AIR DEFENCE.

WHEN speaking ■ of the immense possibilities of air defence in Ihe case of future attacks from (lie sea. Sir Joseph Ward, in a speech at Bluff, says the Southland Times, let drop a remark about “a certain bomb that tin* public know little about/’ which piqued the curiosity, of bis auditors. Later, lie let them in a little to tin? mystery, explaining that he.had his information from one of the highest military authorities in the Old Land. A few months before the end of the. war one of the enemy Powers discovered a poison which had such a permeating effect that if half a dozen twopound homhs were dropped over, say, Trafalgar Square, and there were 10,000 people-sheltering in the tubes, they would all be dead in a very short lime, although the bombs did not touch them. The British authorities had been advised of the discovery fairly early, .and at once set about getting a sample. But the Bermans, before a bomb was secured, became possessed of the idea that the British had attained their end. Thus, according to Sir Joseph's informant, saved the position, for the Teutons were afraid of reprisals with their own medicine over Berlin. As ballleships, airships, and all’manner of fighting machines in the future, would probably be armed with this deadly weapon, slated the narrator, some idea, coaid lie gfiined of the intensified deadliness of another conflict.