Protagonist
2008-01-12 06:42:05 UTC
http://www.fpp.co.uk/bookchapters/WSC/gaswar.html
"I am strongly in favour of using poisonous gas against uncivilised
tribes" where it could "spread a lively terror", he added.
The Air Ministry agreed that it was most useful to be able to use gas on
less sophisticated enemies who would have no idea from where the danger
they faced came. The use of gas was banned by the 1925 Geneva protocol.
Churchill wanted to use gas on enemies
By Ben Fenton
WINSTON Churchill championed the use of chemical weapons against what he
called "uncivilised tribes", according to papers released yesterday at
the Public Record Office.
Despite the horrors of the First World War, he called opposition to the
use of gas "squeamishness". Churchill was Secretary of State for the
Royal Air Force in 1919 when his staff were advocating that gas should
be retained as a potential weapon and that Britain should oppose any
international ban on its use.
In a report drawn up in late 1919 as part of Britain's contribution to
discussions about the establishment of the League of Nations, an Air
Ministry official wrote: "Chemical warfare cannot now be ruled out of
war. Had the war continued, gas would have been almost our most
formidable weapon. One shell in every four would have been a gas shell
and tanks would have been using it freely."
The air staff talked of gas shells as if the substances they contained
would cause only temporary disability rather than the choking death
suffered by thousands of servicemen of both nations on the Western
Front. The official wrote that if gas were to be banned on humanitarian
grounds, so too should conventional explosives because they were ''far
more terrible weapons which remove limbs, shatter bones, produce
'nerves' and cause madness'".
He added: "The elimination of this very powerful weapon from the future
of war without the most careful consideration is to be deprecated." A
memo by Churchill, written about the same time and signed "WSC", said:
"I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas.
"It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment
of a bursting shell and then to boggle at making his eyes water by means
of a lachrymatory gas. "I am strongly in favour of using poisonous gas
against uncivilised tribes" where it could "spread a lively terror", he
added.
The Air Ministry agreed that it was most useful to be able to use gas on
less sophisticated enemies who would have no idea from where the danger
they faced came. The use of gas was banned by the 1925 Geneva protocol.
"I am strongly in favour of using poisonous gas against uncivilised
tribes" where it could "spread a lively terror", he added.
The Air Ministry agreed that it was most useful to be able to use gas on
less sophisticated enemies who would have no idea from where the danger
they faced came. The use of gas was banned by the 1925 Geneva protocol.
Churchill wanted to use gas on enemies
By Ben Fenton
WINSTON Churchill championed the use of chemical weapons against what he
called "uncivilised tribes", according to papers released yesterday at
the Public Record Office.
Despite the horrors of the First World War, he called opposition to the
use of gas "squeamishness". Churchill was Secretary of State for the
Royal Air Force in 1919 when his staff were advocating that gas should
be retained as a potential weapon and that Britain should oppose any
international ban on its use.
In a report drawn up in late 1919 as part of Britain's contribution to
discussions about the establishment of the League of Nations, an Air
Ministry official wrote: "Chemical warfare cannot now be ruled out of
war. Had the war continued, gas would have been almost our most
formidable weapon. One shell in every four would have been a gas shell
and tanks would have been using it freely."
The air staff talked of gas shells as if the substances they contained
would cause only temporary disability rather than the choking death
suffered by thousands of servicemen of both nations on the Western
Front. The official wrote that if gas were to be banned on humanitarian
grounds, so too should conventional explosives because they were ''far
more terrible weapons which remove limbs, shatter bones, produce
'nerves' and cause madness'".
He added: "The elimination of this very powerful weapon from the future
of war without the most careful consideration is to be deprecated." A
memo by Churchill, written about the same time and signed "WSC", said:
"I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas.
"It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment
of a bursting shell and then to boggle at making his eyes water by means
of a lachrymatory gas. "I am strongly in favour of using poisonous gas
against uncivilised tribes" where it could "spread a lively terror", he
added.
The Air Ministry agreed that it was most useful to be able to use gas on
less sophisticated enemies who would have no idea from where the danger
they faced came. The use of gas was banned by the 1925 Geneva protocol.