unco-ordinated, activity. The production of a protective appliance,
the gas mask, was vital. This development will be considered later.
Allied chemical warfare organisations arose, to become an important
factor in the later stages of the war. The history of Allied gas
organisation is one of the gradual recognition that chemical warfare
represented a new weapon with new possibilities, new specific uses,
and new requirements from the rear. Its beginnings are seen
in the English and French Scientific Advisory Committees
appointed to examine the new German method. One could always
trace an element of reluctance, however, in Allied development,
signs that each move was forced upon us by some new German surprise.
We find the other extreme, the logical outcome of war experience,
in the completely independent Chemical Warfare Service now actually
adopted in the United States of America. This is dealt with in
a separate chapter.

The decision to retaliate once made, our difficulties commenced.
We required gas, weapons, and methods for its use, trained personnel,
and the association of certain scientific with military standards
without losing the field efficiency of the latter. The German
staff found this in their co-operation with eminent scientists,
notably Professor Haber. Without drawing invidious distinctions
between pre-war military and public appreciation of chemical science
in England and Germany, it would be merely untrue to state that
the Germans were not in a position of advantage in this respect.
However, chemical mobilisation and co-operation proceeded sufficiently
rapidly to provide us with personnel and material for the Loos attack.

The assembly and organisation of personnel occurred in
three directions. In the first place the Royal Society had already