GAS AND THIRD WORLD CONFLICTS

As early as 1925, Benito Mussolini had authorised contingency planning for a full-scale military invasion of Ethiopia whenever events in Europe afforded him the opportunity to do so. Although he ratified 

Mussolini mounted an extraordinary campaign to conceal the extent and nature of Italy s gas attacks. Having portrayed Italy as a civilised 

Such assessments cannot be accepted without data on the number of gas casualties and the proportion of gas to other casualties -information which is simply not available. Undoubtedly there were severe casualties whenever the Abyssinians, always barefoot and clad only in togas and cotton trousers, passed through a contaminated area or were struck by mustard spray. Under the tropical heat, the mustard burns appeared more rapidly than in the First World War, and the troops lacked either masks or protective clothing. Not until 6 April 1936 were the first 1800 gas masks made available by the Ethiopian Women s Work Association. Only late in the war did the Ethiopian government import medicines to treat the gas burns. Casualty records were not kept, apart from the men, women and children who received treatment from the Red Cross units. As the latter were few in number and were scattered across both fronts of the war, they could treat only a small proportion of the wounded, without gaining any impression of the total number involved. Members of the British Red Cross Unit, however, were quoted as saying that they alone had 

Having employed gas in these battles, and in the bombing of several towns, the Italians clearly regarded it an ideal weapon for terrorising the enemy. In the wake of their victory at Lake Ashangi, they subjected Quoram to four days of gas bombardment (4 to 7 April), in 

This utility reflected both the inability of the Abyssinians to protect themselves and the absence of any credible deterrent. The Italians were neither threatened with serious retaliation by the Abyssinians nor with intervention by other powers. Only Britain and France could have posed any threat but neither was prepared to act against Italy, a Locarno power, to uphold the principle of collective security. Although the League of Nations had responded to Italy s invasion by imposing economic sanctions (18 November 1935), it could never 

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