GAS.
The Yprhs Times
147
THE BURNING OP THE CEOTH HAEE, 1915.
A coloured reproduction of this picture can he bought through the Ypres League
price 6d., post free Id.
There is a trite saying that there is nothing new under the sun, and this applies to the
use of gas in war. Asphyxiating gas is said to have been used in the wars between Athens
and Sparta in 400 B.C., burning sulphur being the agent employed. Greek fire, also con
taining sulphur, was used in the Middle Ages. During the Crimean War, burning sulphur
was suggested by Admiral Lord Dundonald as a means of reducing Sebastopol, but the
idea was rejected as dishonourable by the Government of the day. Stink bombs were
used by Chinese pirates as late as i860, while the French Police had a lachrymatory, or
tear producing, grenade which was employed effectively in 1912 in capturing the notorious
Bonnot Gang at Choisy.
At the Hague Conference in 1899, at which all the nations recently at war were
represented, the Governments pledged themselves not to use any projectiles, the sole
object of which was the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases," while there were
other agreements not to employ poisons or poisonous weapons. The wording of the
Hague Convention, however, left a number of loopholes open, and supporters of Germany
could no doubt argue that, from the strictly legal and logical point of view, she was quite
within her rights when she used gas in 1915. The first gas was discharged from cylinders,
which are not projectiles, and the first gas shell had a high explosive charge, so that their
