POISON GAS AND PEACE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 29 July 1929, Page 8

POISON GAS AND PEACE

g ATTITUDE OF UNITED STATES i 4tf. *' * r ' » . ( ';j Commenting’oq tlj.6 reluctance of tho i i United States ; to abandon Hie military •« use. of poison gas, "ATP J. M.' ScammelL !J in aii article 'in .£?quotes expert-evidence is a i.l tar more humane weapon Ijian' higli- —.

explosive shells,” and that the mortality ns well as permanent injury caused by it. are relatively loss than are atlribulaljle to other weapons. "(las is the great weapon of peace, ’ ho concludes. ‘With the humanity and effectiveness of chemical warfare recognised, whole categories of States will automatically be, excluded from waging wars without the consent of a ’few great peace-loving inrlustrial Powers. Today, would com lliets mav .spring from the quarrels o'f small"belligerent, semi-civilised States.

The threat of chastisement by means of gas would bo enough to nip such ijiiarrels in the hud. . . No country can compare with the United Stales in devotion to the cause of peace. With its material and human resources no other State could hope to eompcl.u with it in the waging of‘ a chemical war. ’Jlutuloi'c, the cause id |.ir.|*-o is safer if lei I in tho hands of tins and other great peace-loving Powers Ilian left, in tlm hands of the least honourable of all' nations. That is precisely where a treaty outlawing chemical warfare would place it. If we look, not to dramatic episodes, but to (lie body of established facts, if w,. turn, not. to war propaganda and to tho works of sensation-mongers, but to reputable men of science, wo shall take our time before we decide a matter which will have such momentous consequences for civilisation and which is far easier to do than to undo.”