Source – theguardian.com
– Think it’s not only terrorists and tyrants like Saddam Hussein who’ve used chemical weapons – Winston Churchill also endorsed their use:
Indeed he must be one of the misrepresented figures in history. Because although the image of Churchill as a defiant wartime leader has become an enduring political icon it’s only part of the overall picture and a deceptive one at that.
For in many respects Churchill was a thoroughly nasty piece work. Ruthlessly ambitious politically he was also what would be seen today as a gambling addict. This was a dangerous combination that brought him into debt and thereby under the spell of money-lenders, who rescued him financially and thus bought influence over him politically.
Apart from being the leading advocate of the disaster that became the Gallipoli Campaign, Churchill was also the prime promoter of the carpet bombing of German cities, which resulted in a real holocaust that consumed as many as half-a-million German civilians.
However, as the following reveals Churchill was also an ardent advocate for the use of chemical weapons. Nor is what is detailed below the only time Churchill advocated their use. In 1919 during a tribal revolt in the British mandate of Mesopotamia, when military commanders balked at the use of chemical weapons, Churchill is on record as writing in a Home Office minute:
“I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror…”
So Churchill recomended the use of such weapons to enforce British rule by spreading “a lively terror”. In other words he was advocating what today would be called “terrorism”. Ed.
Winston Churchill’s shocking use of chemical weapons
Giles Milton — The Guardian Sept 1, 2016
Secrecy was paramount. Britain’s imperial general staff knew there would be outrage if it became known that the government was intending to use its secret stockpile of chemical weapons. But Winston Churchill, then secretary of state for war, brushed aside their concerns. As a long-term advocate of chemical warfare, he was determined to use them against the Russian Bolsheviks. In the summer of 1919, 94 years before the devastating strike in Syria, Churchill planned and executed a sustained chemical attack on northern Russia.
The British were no strangers to the use of chemical weapons. During the third battle of Gaza in 1917, General Edmund Allenby had fired 10,000 cans of asphyxiating gas at enemy positions, to limited effect. But in the final months of the first world war, scientists at the governmental laboratories at Porton in Wiltshire developed a far more devastating weapon: the top secret “M Device”, an exploding shell containing a highly toxic gas called diphenylaminechloroarsine. The man in charge of developing it, Major General Charles Foulkes, called it “the most effective chemical weapon ever devised”.
Trials at Porton suggested that it was indeed a terrible new weapon. Uncontrollable vomiting, coughing up blood and instant, crippling fatigue were the most common reactions. The overall head of chemical warfare production, Sir Keith Price, was convinced its use would lead to the rapid collapse of the Bolshevik regime. “If you got home only once with the gas you would find no more Bolshies this side of Vologda.” The cabinet was hostile to the use of such weapons, much to Churchill’s irritation. He also wanted to use M Devices against the rebellious tribes of northern India. “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes,” he declared in one secret memorandum. He criticised his colleagues for their “squeamishness”, declaring that “the objections of the India Office to the use of gas against natives are unreasonable. Gas is a more merciful weapon than [the] high explosive shell, and compels an enemy to accept a decision with less loss of life than any other agency of war.”
He ended his memo on a note of ill-placed black humour: “Why is it not fair for a British artilleryman to fire a shell which makes the said native sneeze?” he asked. “It is really too silly.”
A staggering 50,000 M Devices were shipped to Russia: British aerial attacks using them began on 27 August 1919, targeting the village of Emtsa, 120 miles south of Archangel. Bolshevik soldiers were seen fleeing in panic as the green chemical gas drifted towards them. Those caught in the cloud vomited blood, then collapsed unconscious.
The attacks continued throughout September on many Bolshevik-held villages: Chunova, Vikhtova, Pocha, Chorga, Tavoigor and Zapolki. But the weapons proved less effective than Churchill had hoped, partly because of the damp autumn weather. By September, the attacks were halted then stopped. Two weeks later the remaining weapons were dumped in the White Sea. They remain on the seabed to this day in 40 fathoms of water.
RIELPOLITIK 
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