Sargent's Picture.—"The judgment of future generations on the use of gas may well be influenced by the pathetic appeal of Sargent's picture of the first `Mustard Gas' casualties at Ypres, but it must not be forgotten in looking at that picture that 75 per cent. of the blinded men he drew were fit for duty within three months, and that had their limbs and nerves been shattered by the effects of high explosive, their fate would have been infinitely worse."
Need for Safeguards.—We have continually referred to the need for safeguards instead of mere reliance on prohibition. Such views and facts as the above should be more generally known in order that very worthy sentiments may not impel us to adopt an unsound solution for future peace. However alarmed and revolted we may have been in 1915 and later during the war, it is essential to take a balanced view in the present critical period of reconstruction.
CHAPTER XII
CHEMICAL WARFARE AND DISARMAMENT
Preceding chapters have shown how chemical warfare has now become a normal, technical, and increasingly important part of the science of war. Further, it has opened vast possibilities, the limits of which it is very difficult to fix.
The Treaty of Versailles.—Chemical warfare received definite attention in the formulation of the Treaty of Versailles. Lord Moulton, one of the few Allied representatives who realised the full importance of the matter, has drawn attention to its Treaty aspect in a recent speech. He lays emphasis on the fact that the full significance of the German dye industry was not realised during the war. Referring to its chameleon-like nature in peace and war, Lord Moulton says: "All this was imperfectly present to my mind throughout the war, and I was aware of the gravity of the matter, but until I learnt what had passed in Germany I could not appreciate it fully. I have spoken to you of the extent to which the Germans turned their chemical works into general works for supplying explosives. I have not touched the part in which they played the most deadly game against us, and that was where they used their chemical works to produce those toxic gases."
The same statement tells us, "The knowledge that I have gleaned as to what was going on in Germany during the war makes me feel that all my anticipa-tions of the importance of chemical industries in time of war, all the views that I expressed of that importance, did not nearly approach what has been proved to have gone on in the enemy's country during the war." He then proceeds to explain how a clause was inserted in the treaty—"whereby the Germans have to tell us all the secrets of their manufacture of explosives, all their methods of making toxic gases— in fact, all the military secrets that made them so terrible. This clause was a very just one. It is not fair that when we have gone through this agonising struggle, and when we are still suffering from the consequences of all the wealth of knowledge and ingenuity which they employed for their infamous purposes— it is not fair, I say, to allow them to keep these secrets to themselves, and I think you will agree with me it was in the highest degree consonant with justice that we should make them reveal them all to us." Small wonder that we missed this vital point, that we failed to fathom the force behind the German chemical war, if such an eminent authority was left groping for the truth. There was no time for mature reflection with the problems of war supply pressing forward in an endless stream. Lord Moulton was himself responsible for the brilliant solution of the most important, the problem of explosives supply.
The realisation of the facts in question led to the direct admission of their importance in the Treaty. Article 172, the one in question, states: "Within a period of three months from the coming into force of the present Treaty, the German Government will disclose . . . the nature and mode of manufacture of all explosives, toxic substances or other like chemical preparations used by them in the war, or prepared by them for the purpose of being so used."
German Information.—This clause should be fulfilled in detail. In any given period of the stage of intensive chemical warfare and at the end, the Germans, in addition to those devices in operation, must have had a large number of more telling and more novel ones in preparation. It is important to get as much information as possible on this development.
A striking fact emerges. The years 1915, 1916, and the early part of 1917 witnessed the actual manufacture of the war chemicals which were used by Germany on the front. All the research and other work which precedes chemical manufacture must have been completed much earlier. What surprises, then, had the German laboratories in store for us after 1917? Have these been revealed under authority of the Treaty?