New Britain Herald Newspaper, June 21, 1929, Page 31

w1 Ueser-vier by In M:' uney, in Bring Plogne ond Fanie W e Ewomns Comniry, £ - o 4 . How Women Are Fighting the Use o Dead| Germs and Gases in Warfare Came the Announcement of the Newest and Deadliest of Weapons —-the Invisible mes s iose 44 AN advances so swiftly in M the invention and perfection of mechanical and chemical means for destruction, and so slowly in the control and restraint necessary to the humane employment of armed forces, that the women of the world must hmd together for vigorous ac tion to offset the terrible potentiali- ties of new means for making war, or —mankind will destroy itself!” Thus succinctly may be expressed the motivating factors behind the re- cent meeting, at Frankfurt-am-Main, of the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom at which forty- two countries were represented. And a proof of the truth of this premise was furnished the women in startling form when, at the very close of their » - G b Airplane! are actuslly known to be capeble ot Be Owue of th employment for war, this number prob- Protective ably will reach more than s hundred Weapons when experiments now in band are Arlm the completed. oFuod with this alarming condition the members of the League cast about them for some means of regulating the P Who Made Millions From Munitions Plants, But She Has Announced Herself » Protugonist fop Peace. of the horrors which poison gas may Callsc 1l @ Civy exposey o this torm of attack that a f.m number of the dele- gates burst into tears! Dr. Naima Sahlbom, of Stockholm, opened the session with an address in which she declared that limitless at- tacks against all would characterize the next war, and that unless some means of regulating the conflict are discov- ered and put into operation it un- doubtedly “will end in the complete annihilation of civilization.” And then, when a consideration of concrete figures was undertaken the sssemhled delegates learnd that there already are twenty-five varieties of poison gas, each of them extremely deadly and for none of them is there an antidote. Fxpert chemists declared that, although only twenty-five gases A Tank of Poison Gas On the Way to the Front. Gas, Both On the Ground and in the Air, Will Be the Chicf Weapon in the [ Next War, Experts Say. peace meeting, they wers informed of the newest and perhaps the most terri- ble of all war machines—the invisible airplane for dropping gas bombs. 'he Frankfurt meeting was a continuation of’a session held at Washington in 1924. Aptly enough, most of the session was devoted to a consideration of ways and means for the control of the use of poison gas and bacteria in war. Most of the speakers before the meeting were men—many of them ex- perts in chemical warfare, and any doubt about their attitude toward the ques*on was re. moved by the following state- ment, .made by Captain Bruns- kog, of Sweden, and heartily endorsed by other experts: “If Europe is unable to abol ish war within & few years it is doomed to destruction. The day of large armies and navies har passed. Attacking fprces ;rill use a8 a weapoh, against whicfio city will be able to rotect itself. Airplanes, fly- ng at night, guided by radio orientation systems, will be able to locate their objectives in the darkness and defense will' be impossible.” e saving of non-combat ants was urged upon the League al first objective, and Pro- fessor L. Lewin, of Germany, drew such 8 striking picture 7 pEAC) Y situation. And here the first paradox ap- peared. For, from all the suggestions made, the one which seemed to offer the greatest Which Will Make gc Next Wae Fatal to Civilization, Acearding to the More Pessimistic of the League Mombers This Ray, However, May Prove to . June Addams, One of the Leaders of Feminine Thought, Who Is Iending Her Influence to Moves ™ 1o Outlaw tiie More Diabolical Means . of Waging War. chance for success was a program of education which would picture the use of gas in warfare as a “weapon of dastardly murderers.” In other words, the members of the League, dealing with a pro™:m which is essentially modern and in fact the product of only the last few years, are turning to the chivalry which mrrked & more romantic age, and hoping that it will protect the world against ruth- less modernity. They hope (and many observers feel that the hope is very much in vain) that they can picture the use of poison gas and deadly germs a: such an unfair and horrible crime that any nation which employs them will immediately become an outlaw. Critics of this hope do not have to look far for what they consider suf- ficient refutation. They declare, in the first place, that any nation sufficiently moved by the spirit of hate to put troops in the field to kill the citizens of another nation, will not be likely to stop because a certain lethal weapon roves more effective than others. And, in the second place, they draw the dire conclusion that poison gas, being so powerful, will enable an adequately prepared nation to wipe its foe off the face of the earth even before pressure could be brought to bear to prevent this wholesale slaughter of innocents. Idealism seems inevitably to breed enthusiasm. Despite the terrible por- tents which a calm consideration of their subject disclosed the leaders of this latest peace conference grew san- guine as their discussion progressed. An increasing sentiment for - world, yeace® as*éne of their ‘&ncouraging .4 aids. Then they had the - satisfaction of knowing that leaders, particularly woman leaders, in nearly every country, are working for the goal they sought. Jane Addams, in America, it one example of this. In Germany Bertha Krupp, who made millions from her munition plants, is a protagonist for peace. Other leaders in London, Paris, Vienna and other world capitals assured the heads of the League of their co-operation in making effective any pre m - the League might adopt, and finally the League looked to the scientists them- selves for aid. More than one scientist, called upon by members of the League, declared a willingness to aid it. The general opin- ion voiced by these experts was in har. mony with the summation at the begin- ning of this article, viz.: that while science might discover and perfect the most deadly gases man is so illfitted to use them for peaceful purposes that he cannot be trusted to know of them, and that they must be kept a secret until civilization reaches a stage where humanity will not destroy itself with its own inventions. And then, when the session of the League for Peace had reached its most enthusiastic stage, there came the an. nouncement of the newest and most deld!'; of all implements for war—the invicible airplane. The invisible airplane is construetea of a fabric known as alduc. It is strong, pliable and as tough as the ma- terials of which planes have been made in the past. But it has the additiona! quality of being almost as transparent a3 glass. Experiments have been con- ducted which show that a plane con- structed of alduc is almost invisible at four or five thousand feet, and it ic comrletely invisible at altitudes which would plainly reveal the ordinary plane to observers below. But this announcement alone was not enough. With it came the an- nouncement of a new and more deadly as than has ever been known before r. Hilton L. Jones, noted Chicago chemist, who is experimenting with the new gas, made this announcement. “It is so deadly,” said Professor Jones, “that it will bring horrible death from mere contact with the skin! It was such a compound that wrecked the Kent Laboratory while the late Dr. John Ulric Nef, former head of the chemistry department of the University of Chicago, was experi- :nat;gng with it, and there is no anti- of