president's address — SECTION B. 29 



advantage of a solemn covenant not to use poisons to spring a 

 ghastly surprise on their opponents. The effect of that iii-st 

 chlorine attack in Flanders in May, 1915, was devastating; and, 

 had it been followed up, might well have been decisive. 

 Apparently nothing prevented the Grermans from marching 

 through to the Channel Forts, except that the German profes- 

 sional officer showed the samei kind of mental inertia and suspicion 

 of new inventions said to be characteristic of his British col- 

 leagues. 



When they began the war the German High Command believed 

 that the stocks of explosives and other munitions, which they had 

 been accumulating, would be sufficient to enable them to o^verride 

 all oppositiom. Hence in Germany, as with us, the manufacture 

 of explosives was at first organized sufficiently to meet only peace- 

 time requirements. But as soon as it was found that the Allies 

 had developed an annoying capacity to hinder the war from pro- 

 ceeding according to plan, both sides were faced with the necessity 

 to extend the manufacture of explosives on an unheard of scale. 

 In this, however, the Germans started with the advantage greatly 

 on their side. The enormous factories for the manufacture of 

 dyes and other fine chemicals, which had grown up in Germany, 

 were an invalnable asset, since the chemical plant which they 

 contained cculd be converted rapidly to the purposes of explosives 

 manufacture, and, what is of some import at the present time, 

 could as readily be re-converted to serve the industries of peace. 

 In Britain, on the other hand, the corresponding chemical re- 

 sources were relatively small, hO that we had to face the probletm 

 of erecting and equipping huge and entirely new factories, speci- 

 ally to meet the enormous demands for explosives suddenly made 

 upon the nation. In response to this demand, there gradually 

 arose that wonderful organization known as the Department of 

 Explosives Supply of the Ministry of Mvmitions, with Lord Moiul- 

 tcn as its Director-General. Lord Mculton's services to the nation 

 have been frequently extolled, but probably the greatest of them 

 all was the selection, as his Chief of Staff, of Mr. K. B. Quinan, 

 of the Cape Explosives Works. Mr. Quinan came from South 

 Africa with an established reputation as an explosives expeirt and 

 chemical engiiieer. When he returned thither at the close of the 

 war, he had proved himself tO' be one of the greatest organizers 

 and men of genius who had fought for the Allied cause. Whilst 

 he never spared himself, he possessed in a high degree the gift of 

 winning the confidence and getting the veiy best out of those 

 around him. It has happened to few men to receive such whole- 

 hearted loyalty from colleagues and subordinates, and few have 

 so well deserved it. 



It was under Mr. Quinan in the Factories Branch of the 

 Department of Explosives Supply that the British chemist found 

 his greatest chance to ccme into his own. Startingr from small 



