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There seems to be a division of opinion about the use of gas-bombs in war. Will someone please explain why flooding a country with visible gas, which one can see coming and avoid by the simple process of running away, is any more inhuman or "barbarous" than flooding with water a country occupied by one's enemy and drowning him if he stays to be drowned? One can see the gas and one can see the water, so wherein lies the difference? It is just as well to clear the mind of cant in these matters, for one never knows when one may want to do the same thing oneself, though the gas is less effective than water because it does not set up a permanent barrier, and cuts equally well the other way when the wind changes.

While discussing this question of poison gasses recently, an irresponsible friend suggested that the R.F.C. might make some of the less efficient aeroplanes of official design justify their existence by flying them over to the gas area and fixing them to the ground tail on to the advancing cloud of gas so that by keeping the propellers running the gas might be blown backwards onto the advancing Germans. There is many a true word spoken in jest, and the idea is not quite as crazy as it sounds.

An Antidote.

Of course, one would not use aeroplanes for the job, but there seems no good reason why some of our hundreds of idle armoured cars-which are waiting for that long-hoped-for German repulse-should not be turned to good account. It ought to be quite possible to rig up quite quickly and cheaply on a number of these cars large rotary air fans, driving them by belt off the car motor. They could be fixed on overhead frames designed to lie down flat on top of the cars when not in use, like the collapsible funnel of a penny steamer. By placing them overhead one would enable the crew of the car to use their machine-guns or quick-firers to fire along the clear lane blown through the gas by their

air-fans.

The expression air-fan is used advisedly, for the proper aeroplane propeller is quite a different article. The propeller is designed to screw its way through the air with the highest efficiency, that is to say its designer's intention and hope is that it shall get the best possible grip on the air while actually shifting as little air as possible. An air-fan, on the other hand, such as the well-known Blackman fan, is designed to throw as much air as possible backwards, at as high a speed as possible with a minimum expenditure of power, which is quite another problem in design.

Several squadrons of cars thus equipped could be kept in readiness to rush off at a moment's notice to blow away at any rate some of the gas as it drifted over our positions, and so hold enough ground to form a salient jutting into the enemy's lines and bring a flanking fire to bear on the troops which advanced past the point of the salient. It must be remembered that as the cars came into position they would be hidden from the enemy's artillery by the advancing wall of gas, and so would have the advantage of opening fire themselves at some unexpected point on advancing infantry.

It is even possible that in perfectly calm weather,

when there is no wind to blow poison-gas one way or the other, the cars might be used to blow gas into the enemy's lines as a preliminary to an infantry attack. In that case one would raise the wall of gas first and then rush the cars up under its cover to blow it in the right direction. Most people have seen an ordinary aeroplane propeller blow a fog of castor-oil smoke 200 to 300 yards across an aerodrome on a calm day, so with scientifically made air-fans, and properly concocted gas, a dozen or twenty high-powered cars ought to be able to do quite good business over a front of 500 yards or so.

The prevailing wind in Western Europe is between North-West and South-West, so by using our natural opportunities to the best advantage, and by making our own opportunities in calm weather, we ought to be able to beat the Germans at their own game, if only we can succeed in humbugging our own consciences into believing that it is the righteous thing to do, or if we can be intellectually honest and say that we are going to play this game out under "catch-as-catch-can" rules, and damn the consequences,' "because we mean to win by fair means or foul.

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A Confession of Weakness.

Even that priceless person the official Eye-Witness seems to have let himself lose his mental orientation over the poison-gas business, for he refers to its use as a "confession of weakness." It may indicate weakness in other material, such as guns and aircraft, but it certainly does not show weakness of determination or of intellect, and there is much to be said for the German argument that barbarism in war is justified by the fact that it shortens the duration of war.

The "Liverpool Daily Post" refers to the use of poison-gas as a "Hellish Device." So it is. So is the bayonet with which a soldier makes a hole in the stomach of an anonymous enemy who a few months before was the blameless father of a peaceful and happy family. So is the iron-tipped boot with which a drunken hooligan kicks out the brains of a harmless necessary policeman.

So were firearms considered by medieval knights when "villainous saltpetre" enabled a common footsoldier to punch holes in a gentleman's armour before the said gentleman could spit him with a ten-foot lance, or smite him o'er the mazzard (wherever that may be) with a spikey mace. So were the methods of repelling attacks on baronial castles when "something humorous with boiling oil in it" was emptied over the parapet onto the devoted heads of the attacking party. So is a cane applied to the seating accommodation of a delicately nurtured but badly disciplined small boy by an exasperated and exacerbated schoolmaster. So is any form of argument which depends upon physical injury and not on moral suasion."

Unfortunately "hellish devices" are the only arguments most people are likely to understand until such time as human nature has been reformed by a practically impossible system of eugenics, and intellectual honesty masters cant and humbug. And then probably the world will not be half as pleasant a place to inhabit. Certainly it will not be as humorous. Meantime any attempt to run a war on a humanitarian basis