THE CHEMISTS' BIT IN THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 October 1919, Page 94

THE CHEMISTS' BIT IN THE WAR.

WHAT THE GERMANS MISSED. Mr. F. G. Kellaway, M.P., Joint Parliamentary Secretary and Deputy Minister of Munitions, speaking at the dinner of the Association of British Chemical Manufacturers recently, said that the work of the committee, of which Lord Moulton was chairman—the High Explosives Committee —stood out as one of the most remarkable achievements of the whole war. From the time Germany first used poison gas there was a continuous struggle between her offensive and our defensive methods. In the late Colonel Harrison our anti-gas department found a man fully equipped to achieve the. highest measure of success. After the' first battle of Ypres Colonel Harrison and his chemists were never surprised by any new form of gas introduced by Germany. Turning to the introduction of mustard gas by the Germans during 1918, Mr. Kellaway stated that it was offered to the British Government some considerable time before it was used by Germany, but it was rejected by the military authorities. The German Army Command proved more far-seeing. Last year mustard gas shells caused in one division alone of the British Army 7000 casualties. ■ The discovery of mustard gas was the discovery of a Scottish chemist named Guthrie. After the attack on Arras British chemists commenced experimental work, and were able to develop Guthrie's simple and direct process into a practical proposition for making the same material which the Germans were producing by long and laborious methods. The Germans were so surprised when we first used mustard gas that they thought we had taken it from their own "dud" shells. They were certain no other country could produce it in quantities of more than a few drops. But in the spring of this year Germany would have been drenched and almost drowned with the gas she herself had introduced.

Lord Moulton, proposing the toast of His Majesty's Ministers, said the positive terror with which he viewed ? \he lack of important chemical industries vitally necessary to save England in the terrible conflict in which she was engaged was fresh in his mind and would always remain there. He often wondered to what extent the nation would realise how the perils of tliOHe early days were due to the fact that the energy of British industrial life had been concentrated on the more heavy chemicals, and that it had neglected almost totally the numerous branches for whicli their foes were piling up funds. He had w.mdwei if England would learn the lesson.