POISON GAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 November 1939, Page 5

POISON GAS

BASELESS NAZI CHARGES T PERSISTENTLY REPEATED. BRITISH REPUDIATION. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. October 31. The War Office announces that despite its statement issued on October 20. in which German allegations that Britain supplied poison gas to Poland were categorically denied for the third time, Germany continues to circulate in neutral countries, by pamphlet and wireless, repetitions and elaborations of the same baseless charge. Since October 20 the Polish Government has also issued a categorical denial that poison gas was ever supplied in any form by Britain to Poland, and a Swiss doctor who examined German soldiers alleged to be victims of British poison gas in Poland has declared in an interview on October 23 that he “found no evidence indicating in what circum-stances-the poison has occurred,” and that he had at the time “feared that his statement would be misused for anti-British propaganda.” The justification put. forward by Germany for repeating its charges is that what it calls a “laconic answer" is not sufficient rebuttal of what it claims to be “a charge proved by circumstantial evidence.” This so-called circumstantial evidence consists of the following assertions: First, that large clumps of mustard gas mines were found at or near Oxhoeft in the vicinity of Gdynia and were stored among war material supplied by Britain; secondly, that Polish dockers admitted having unloaded at night, shortly before the war. all the material found in these dumps; thirdly. that the, mustard gas mines and shells discovered near various towns in Poland were accounted for on delivery forms, showing that they had been distributed from the dump at Oxhoeft mentioned before. Thus the sole connection between Britain and poison gas alleged to have been found anywhere in Poland is that this gas came from the Oxhoeft dump and that this dump had been filled by British ships.

The following is therefore a further reply to this charge. It is still necessarily laconic but none the less complete. The Board of Trade, through a system of export licences for raw materials, maintains the strictest control over and complete records of all exports of munitions. A detailed examination of these records and of every possible source of supply shows that nothing of the kind at any time has been sent to Poland.