Topic: Canadian Army
Panic Said More Harm Than Gas (1938)
R.C.R. Lieutenant Disputes the Theory That Poison Gas Can Wipe Out Whole Communities
The Stouffville Sun-Tribune, Stouffville, Ontario, 26 May 1938
Mammoth air raids, with gas attacks which would wipe out entire communities as large as Hamilton, were visualized by the uninformed, in the event another war occurred, but there was no likelihood of such atrocities, Lieut. J.H.W.T. Pope, of the Royal Canadian Regiment, Toronto, declared last week when he gave an address and demonstration on chemical warfare before members of Hamilton Academy of Medicine.
To stage a chemical attack upon the Queen City, a concentration of gas would be necessary and 25,000 200-pound air bombs would have to be dropped to accomplish this. This effort would require 6,300 planes, and for any power to provide the necessary equipment would be impossible, the speaker said. Panic and fear resulting from the use of gas were the greatest casualty producers and not the poisonous fumes.
"It is an unpleasant way to talk, but the important effect of gas in war is that it is a casualty producer, which is considered more important than a mortality producer. If a man is dead, you do not have to worry about him, but if he lives and is unable to work he must be maintained. Thousands of such casualties create a great problem," said the speaker.
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