1940-10-10 — Page 7

THE CHINA MAIL, OCTOBER 10, 1940..

CHINA MAIL

WINDSOR HOUSE

FAR EAST CRISIS

Rocket

ON September 18 last we were threatened by a "Secret Wea- pon," Hitler himself telling us that: "The moment may come

we shall use a when

weapon is not yet known and

Now, like a cork, it has bobbed up again, for German military

Is It The Secret Weapon?

Turning to the tank. So far as

Bomb:

catapults into the town in addi-War Ministry." Since then silence tion to 2,000 cartloads of manure. has prevailed.

No, there is precious little new in war. Therefore should. Hitler really have a secret weapon up his sleeve, the likelihood is that it is the development of an old idea. What it is, I cannot say; yet I do know this:

Since the ending of the World War the Germans have been ex -perimenting with the oldest of all explosively propelled pro

It is a safe surmise that lines of communication which between Japan and the against which there is no defence." Axis powers have been getting progressively hot-leaders have said that weapons ter in the last 48 hours. never before used will be employ

ed against Britain. The gambler's throw into which Hitler inveigled Ja-

the life history of weapons has

In modern times, the fist man pan in the curious belief been fairly constant, for nearly all

plece of fireworks was. Major-Gen that the United States have emerged out of secrecy.

eral Sir W. Congreve, the idea occurring to him in 1804.He at could be intimidated into Daily, scores of men are think-

Does the reader know that in once set to work and his war withdrawing her horns ing them out; thousands are de- 1456 and, 1471' two acts of Parlia-rocket was first used in the bem- in 1800, vised; few are accepted, and thenment concerning similar war cartsbardment of Boulogne

in Scotland; were passed

that when "in less simultaneously in the At-generally most reluctantly; some

than ten minutes after the first discharge, the town was discovered to be on fire." lantic and Pacific has have changed the course of his- tory, whilst others have disappear- been swiftly exposed as a

ed amidst peals of laughter. diplomatic blunder of the first order.

I have been able to discover, its earliest conception dates back to the twelfth century B.C., when a Chinese general, by name Sun-

jectiles-namely, the rocket. It should bo remembered thpt Tzo, mentions this weapon, under the name of "Lou," and tells us that they were small moving for-

some

For example, in 1887, genius invented a new type of re-pack gun, and the Ordnance Com- mittee tried it out at Woolwich

7

tresses frequently used in sieges, home reworks weapon of this

but also in pitched battles:"

By Major-General

J. F. C. Fuller

Though the range of Congreve's no more than 3,600 rocket was

that, yards, experts, inform us should two difficulties be over- come, there is no theoretical tea- son why a rocket could not be con- structed which would travel from Berlin to London, or Berlin to New York.

These two difficulties ure-mo-

maintenance of tive-power and direction. Should these be solved, then it will become possible to bombard cities by rockets carry- ing scores of tons of high ex- plosives, munless projectiles which of built-up will devastate acres areas in a second.

Persorally, I think that, as a stepping-stone to this war of in- nihilation, aircraft will be fitted with rocket-bombs, which will en- able them to bombard,a elty with- Of it he says: "The Rocket is, in out penetrating its ground anti- as formerly truth, an arm by which the whole aircraft defences, system of military tactics is des-walled cities were bombarded by tined to be changed.

cannon and mortars.

Nevertheless, except as fire- "There is," wrote an American works, rockets disappeared from rocketeer five years ago, "no pos- our army in 1885. Then, as I have sible doubt that militarists all over mentioned, shortly after the last the world, with the possible ex- war a return was made to them,ception of England, are fully alive Germany becoming, as one writer to the tremendous possibilities of informs us, "the home of rocketry" rockets in modern warfare and in under the skilled direction of Pro- the next war it will inevitably follow that rocket propulsion will fessor Oberth.

be developed to the fullest extent of its destructive powers, just as happened in the Great War with the acroplane."

As Mr. Churchill minded Japan when an- Arsenal. nouncing the decision to It was a small cannon strapped allow the Burma Road broadside on across a horse's back. Leonardo da Vinci descripes one and its tactics so minutely that to The horse was tied to a post, the they closely resemble those made closure agreement

committee standing on one side. use of on November 20, 1917, at the

Nothing much was heard about

·lapse, neither of

The fuse was lit, whereupon the, the battle of Cambrai.

these trials, until, 1922, when the branches of the English-horse, somewhat startled, turned

Immedately after the last war, Rugen Correspondent of a London round pointing the muzzle at the

some ingenious rogue suggested paper reported that, on November speaking race is accus-

Be this as it may, there is a sav heads of the interested spectators. bacteriological warfare. He, no 5, "Herr Otto Fischer was shot six- tomed to react to threats Not a moment was to be lost; down doubt, thought himself very clever; miles into the air within a 24ft. ing clause, and every schoolboy of violence by submission. went the chairman and members, yet his idea was certainly as ok steel rocket and returned to earth who has played about with fire- as Coribut, who, in 1422, when he safe and sound, though shaken works knows it. Like the Wool- Carolstein, had the ... the demonstration was made wich Arsenal horse, rockets have The effect has, therefore, lying flat and low on their stom-tay siege to

achs. The gun went off; the shot bodies of his soldiers, whom the under cover of absolute secrecy the unpleasant habit of sometimes been precisely the reverse passed over the town of Woolwich besieged had killed, shot from his under the auspices of the German turning round. of that so neatly planned and fell in the dockyard; the horse by Hitler's Little Bis-was marck. The United States has been stirred to a point It is interesting to learn that, on recovering their equilibrium, the beyond which she is pre-committee reported unanimously pared to stand no non-against any further trials.

sense.

found lying on its back several yards away.

•

*

seem

that

Japan may well pause Though at first it may

is logical strange, yet it and consider; and enquire throughout history it is siege and of Berlin precisely what is not mobile to be the next delicate stimulated inventive genius. Thus; in the last war, no sooner was the

warfare which bas

sec-

step in proceedings the western Front entrenched than, dangers of which are pret-as if out of a conjurer's hat, ap- ty plain; may well ponder peared first lethal gas and the wisdom or otherwise only the of making the re-opening the other our enemy, the ideas be-

weapons of the Burma Road a ser-hind these two

nearly as old as war itself. ious issue.

tank. Nevertheless, though the one surprised us and

were

In modern times, gas first ap- Admiral

in-

Less than a fortnight pears as a weapon in

Lord Dundonald's "Secret Plan," since Japan's open al- which he submitted to the Gov- liance with the Axis she is crument on May 12, 1812. It was turned down. Then, when we were compelled to assess the si- bunkered in the Crimean War, on tuation anew. The mood July 22, 1854, he resubmitted it nccessary-- of the United States is it, saying: "Were

which it is not that I should place unmistakable. The Burma myself in an armchair on the poop, Road decision has been with each leg on a cushion, I will

undertake to subdue every communicated by the Bri-sular fortification at Cronstadt- tish Government despite within four hours from the com- mencement of the attack, and or even because of the Sebastopol could be as easily cap pact. Now, much in ad-tured." vance of any moment In 1908 his secret was divulged· likely to have been forein the Panmure Papers, and from it, undoubtedly, the German Gen- seen in Tokyo, she must eral Staff developed gas warfare. weigh the exact amount of help which Italy and Germany could render to dependent upon her own

slender resources. the Japanese Empire if

If there is any doubt in her militarists and Mat- suokas insist on increas-Tokyo of America's firm- ness, Mr. Horinuchi will ing the jeopardy of her re- lations with Britain and swiftly dispel it as the re- sult of his grim interview the United States.

with Mr. Cordell Hull. She is as well aware as

The United States. is we are that for all Italy not "demonstrating.” The is past. and Germany have prom- bluffing stage ised, they cannot perform. Question is whether That a Far Eastern crisis Japan will see any neces- to-day will mean a Japan sity for a violent show- at one end of it, entirely down.

REACHER

LIBERT

Scanne

THE WAY OF AN AMERICAN EAGLE.