Page:"The next war"; an appeal to common sense (IA thenextwarappeal01irwi).pdf/82

 whether bodies of soldiers or towns, they may make even the slaughter of Verdun seem by comparison like bow-and-arrow warfare.

Such a war, probably, would not last long. That is not a certainty, however. One can imagine a drawn first attack; a situation where after incredible slaughter and destruction on both sides, the belligerents would settle down to a war of gas on the frontiers and of aeroplane raids on the towns, while each side strove to manufacture enough munitions for a decisive victory. However, even a war of a few weeks or months would be enough. It would probably roll up at least as large a score of killed and maimed soldiers, of property destruction, as the late war of unblessed memory. It would probably kill many more civilians.

What of the defence—less importantly against air-bombs loaded with tons of explosive, more importantly against poison gas? Now, you must defend not only armies but citizens of towns, not only soldiers but the weakest girl baby. Usually, when a new weapon is introduced into warfare, some time passes before men invent an adequate defence. The knife, carried in the hand or mounted on a shaft, dates from prehistoric times; we were well advanced into historic times before body armor became good enough to turn the edge of a knife. The best defence against gun-fire—burrowing in the earth—though long known, was not fully worked out and universally applied until the late war. The mask