OCR Text |
Show FUTURE GAS WAR. It is evident that chemistry will play an important part in any future war. Any program of national pre-! pre-! paredness which . does not provide adequate means for meeting gas attacks at-tacks and other forms of chemical warfare is sadly deficient in a branch of military activity which may prove of vital importance. And inasmuch as the best defense is a vigorous offensive, our forces should be prepared to carry the fight into the enemy's .camp. While the use of poisonous gases is banned by the nations who were parties to the arms reduction conference confer-ence held in 1922, similar agreements were in effect before the world war, yet they did not prevent the employment employ-ment of these destructive agencies when the urge of necessity came. As a matter of fact, all the leading nations na-tions are today busy with the development de-velopment of chemical war equipment, equip-ment, regardless of their pledges not to use it. Dr. James F. Norris, former president presi-dent of the American Chemical society, so-ciety, sounded a note of warning on. this subject when he said: "When the final pressure comes a nation will use any means available to save its life." He urged that our army continue con-tinue to study and develop the means of chemical warfare, with adequate appropriations for the purpose, as other armies are doing. We do not want to see another war. We did not want to see the last one. But another war may come is almost al-most certain to come sooner or later. We should make reasonable preparations prepara-tions to meet any emergency by developing de-veloping every branch of modern warfare. war-fare. To fail in this would be to invite in-vite disaster, should war unhappily be forced upon us. |