LEAST DANGEROUS

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 21, 26 January 1937, Page 5

LEAST DANGEROUS

GAS ATTACKS The various forms of air attack and I the methods of meeting them were explained to the Medical Practitioners’ Union in London by Major Stuart Blackmore, of the Home Office. Gas, I when used against a trained populat.oM, was described by Major Black- J more as the least dangerous form of air attack. The three major dangers, he said, according to a report in “The Times.” were high explosive bombs, incendi-1 ary bombs, and gas bombs. He placed gas last, because gas. in spite ol its extraordinary dangers to an untrained population—evidence of which they had recently in Abyssinia —was the least dangerous of the three j if they had a proper degree of training and equipment. A high-ex-plosive bomb was a factor against \ hich it was practically impossible to provide adequate protection. The object of the incendiary bomb was to produce widespread fire. For that reason incendiary bombs were not large. They weighed .bout 21b. It was much more difficult to deal with a large number of small sources of fire than a small number of large j sources. Incendiary bombs were; provided with their own oxygen and it I was highly undesirable to put water j or chemical extinguisher on them. The j bombs burned at such a tremendously } high temperature that chemicals applied to put the fire out would be broken up und would give off dangerous gases. Water and extinguisher should be applied to the area surrounding the fire, and efforts should be made rather to isolate than to put The method ot dealing with Incendiary bombs was comparatively j simple. If one had handy a coal: scuttle or a stout bucket in which there was two or three inches of sand j and a scoop with a handle of about! Gft. it was possible to put the bomb ‘ into the receptacle and take it outside.! It was incumbent on every doctor.' nurse, and medical student in the j country to know about gas. The Gov- j emment recently acquired a factory for the manufacture of gas masks and the masks would be kept in stores dotted all over the country in readi-

A mass State trial of seventeen prisoners opened at Moscow on Saturday before Judge Ulrich. The prisoners are charged with being in a “vast plot engineered by M. Leon Trotsky to destroy the Soviet regime and help Germany , Poland, and Japan.” All the prisoners pleaded guilty. Karl Radek teas formerly chief leader-writer of the “Izvestia," organ of the central executive committee of the U.S.S.R. Grigori Sokolnikov was a member of the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs and a former Soviet Ambas. sador to Great Britain. Ulrich presided over the court which in 1933 tried six British employees of the Metropolitan-Vickers Company on charges of espionage and sabotage.