"CHEMICAL WARFARE IS MOST HUMANE"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 8, 1 September 1931, Page 5

"CHEMICAL WARFARE IS MOST HUMANE"

FUTURE WAR'S TERRORS PROFESSOR SHATTER'S ILLUSIONS. Aocording to Professor Charles L. Parsons, seoretary of the American Chemical Society, who is visiting England for the jubilee conference of the Society of Chemical Industry, popular notiohs about death-rays and poison-ous-gas warfare of the future are •greatly exaggerated. "Much that is talked about deathrays being used for shattering cities in the next war is perfect nonsense," Professor Parsons declared. "A tre-* mendous amount of sensational material is put out in reference to chemical warfare which has no real basis in fact. "I do not helieve that the chemists of the world anywhere — unless it is in Russia, and I doubt it very much — are making any special attempt to develop new forms of poison-gas for the next war. "Chemists have not got their minds on warfare. There have not been since the war any discoveries of great moment which would have a bearing on chemical warfare. The chemical warfare service in America is studying almost entirely methods of defence against known gases. "Chemical warfare is very greatly misunderstood. Far from being the most terrible form of warfare, it is the most humane. "It may sound strange, but this is demonstrated by the faets; and in Germany, England, France and America the facts are essentially these: At the close ofthe war, while 30 per cent.. of the casualties came from gas, yet gas was responsible for Only 2 per cent. of the Deaths. "All the casualties recovered. You do not get your arms blown off, your eyes put out, and your lungs ruined by ga,s. There were no more tubercular cases from those gasses than from those not gassed ; statistics show there were slightly fewer. "There is no more danger of wiping out cities by gas attacks than by high explosive attacks," declared the professor. "Either might be' possible it done on a sufflciently enormous scale, but it is almost inconceivable that big cities should be wiped out. "It is a much simpler matt-er to protect against gas than high explosives. If you are supplied with gas masks you are comparatively safe. It would be a monumental task to supply a city like London with masks, but it could be done. "Gas in another war will be specially important in preventing operations by the opposing forces. You can spray all over an area of country with mustard gas, and nobody is going to cross "that country for several weeks. The reason is that the gas evaporates very slowly. "The great use of mustard 'gas, therefore, would be to make certain areas untenable. It will compel troops to leave, but it will not kill many of" them."