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poison gas
The Churchill Project - Hillsdale College > poison gas
Winston Churchill and the Use of Chemical Warfare
05
Aug
2015
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Anyone who believes that Churchill was an enthusiast of lethal gas must produce better evidence than we have seen so far—and some acceptable explanation for the many instances when, faced with its possible use, Churchill and his commanders demurred.
While he never advocated the first use of lethal gas, Churchill's main aim in both world wars was victory. To that end he would consider almost anything. Describing the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 he had written similarly: "At the Admiralty we were in hot pursuit of most of the great key inventions and ideas of the war.... all were being actively driven forward or developed. Poison gas alone we had put aside—but not, as has been shown, from want of comprehension."