"Making gas is naturally rapidly done, because all the manufacturers of chemical product—still so numerous in Germany—can be requisitioned, but to make airplanes is much slower.
"The defence against gas seems to be more difficult than against airplanes. I believe that against airplanes, the anti-aircraft artillery is susceptible of making rapid progress, and perhaps in that very instance gas will be one of the best ways, if with appropriate shells *the air can be poisoned all around the attacking airplanes.
"It would be much more effective to create, for example, a sphere of poisoned air a mile round the airplane, instead of trying to hit the machine directly with bits of the shell."
British, French, and even German opinion, while not underestimating the importance of the matter, may not agree in an unqualified way with all the above statements. But we claim that they show vision in a branch of war which, on account of its scientific basis, may, more than any other, speedily prove the visionary a true prophet.
CHAPTER IX
GERMAN CHEMICAL POLICY
The preceding account of chemical warfare leaves the impression of a successful Allied struggle against persistently unfavourable circumstances. We were constantly compelled to accelerate to attain the pace set by the enemy. There were exceptions, undoubtedly, but in the main Germany kept ahead in the chemical struggle.
So far, in examining the root of our troubles, we have been content to refer to the existence of the I.G., to describe its chemical warfare activities, and to indicate, briefly, its unique power to produce large quantities of organic chemical products at short notice. The close connection between the German dye industry and chemical warfare is now well recognised in official circles, and, to some extent, by the general public. Its belated exposure was almost entirely due to the facts revealed by the Inter-Allied Mission to the German chemical factories some months after the Armistice.
But the situation thus revealed was not created in a day, nor by chance. Indeed, one of the military features of industrial chemical development in the I.G. has already been traced to pre-war activities. I refer to the Haber process for the production of synthetic ammonia. It would be short-sighted policy to accept the set of conditions against which we struggled, and to explain them in terms of the I.G., without looking more closely into the pre-war activities of this organisation. Such an examination may reveal the basic forces which determined our inferior position in chemical warfare at the outbreak of war. It is true that we can explain away our inferiority by referring to the German breach of faith, which automatically created conditions for which we were unprepared. This is a comfortable solution. But had chemical warfare been a strongly developed and accepted method of war before the outbreak of hostilities, would we then have been prepared? The records of the past, before April, 1915, must be consulted to answer this question. We may find that our position is due to more than a mere negative attitude, to more than our simple neglect of the organic chemical industry. It maybe that there were forces which definitely exploited this national characteristic to our disadvantage. The pre-war policy and activities of the I.G. must be examined from this point of view. In no country has such an investigation been more complete than in America, and official statements have been issued by the American Alien Property Custodian[1] which throw a flood of light on the pre-war activities of the constituent branches of the I.G. They conclusively reveal the existence of a carefully directed German chemical policy making for world domination in the organic chemical industry, which greatly hampered the military effectiveness of other countries, and directly strengthened the military resources of Germany. On broad lines, the pre-war and war activities of the I.G. produced the same result as an attempt to strangle the economic life of possible opponents, enfeebling their resistance to the subsequent delivery of a hammer blow designed to take maximum advantage of the situation thus created. Twenty years or more under the regime of a forceful economic policy, not without its sinister aspects, prepared the ground by weakening us in the concentrated chemical warfare which, ensued. The success of this policy manoeuvred us into such a position that we barely escaped defeat under the hammer blows of German chemical aggression. This, in fact, appears to have been the German conception of modern war in its relation to industry, and American reports have shown that it was carried through with typical thoroughness by familiar German methods.
[1] Alien Property Custodian Report, Washington. Government Printing Office, 1919.