WHERE WARS ARE MADE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 533, 10 December 1928, Page 12

WHERE WARS ARE MADE

IN THE CHEMICAL FACTORY While the nations are preparing to sign a treaty abolishing war, Sir James Irvine, the noted chemist and principal of St. Andrew’s University, Scotland, warns Americans that the chemical factory will always remain a potential war-maker. He has told the American Chemical Society at Chicago that “the whole machinery of war may be scrapped, warships may be sunk, armies disbanded, and fortresses demolished, but the ehemical factory must remain, and as long as it exists it is a potential war-factory.” Sir James declared that he did not speak in panic, but he had a profound respect for the ability of the chemists. He , foresaw future warfare as waged, fought and won in the space of a few days. “The alterations necessary,’ he said, “to convert passengercarrying airplanes into bombing machines are not serious. “There is no need for the customary material of war, for the chemical factory oan provide poison shell-fillings which the airplanes will distribute on the objectives. Gas poisoning has been used once and will be used again.”