ken down by Lieutenant McNee. Captain Bertram was then in
the clearing station, suffering from the effects of the gas and from a
wound. From a support trench, about 600 yards from the German lines, he
had observed the gas. He saw, first of all, a white smoke arising from
the German trenches to a height of about three feet. Then in front of
the white smoke appeared a greenish cloud, which drifted along the
ground to our trenches, not rising more than about seven feet from the
ground when it reached our first trenches. Men in these trenches were
obliged to leave, and a number of them were killed by the effects of the
gas. We made a counter-attack about fifteen minutes after the gas came
over, and saw twenty-four men lying dead from the effects of the gas on
a small stretch of road leading from the advanced trenches to the
supports. He was himself much affected by the gas still present, and
felt as if he could not breathe.

The symptoms and the other facts so far ascertained point to the use by
the German troops of chlorine or bromine for purposes of asphyxiation.

There are also facts pointing to the use in German shells of other
irritant substances, though in some cases at least these agents are not
of the same brutally barbarous character as the gas used in the attack
on the Canadians. The effects are not those of any of the ordinary
products of combustion of explosives. On this point the symptoms
described left not the slightest doubt in my mind.

Professor H.B. Baker, F.R.S., who accompanied me, is making further
inquiries from the chemical side.

I am, my Lord, your obedient servant,

J.S. HALDANE.

_The following announcement was issued by the British War Office on
April 29, 1915:_

Thanks to the magnificent response already made to the appeal in the
press for respirators for the troops, the War Office is in a position to
announce that no further respirators need be made.

THE "EYEWITNESS" STORY.

_The following descriptive account was communicated by the British
Official Eyewitness present with General Headquarters, supplementing his
continuous narrative of the movements of the British force and the
French armies in immediate touch with it:_

April 27, 1915.

Since the last summary there has been a sudden development in the
situation on our front, and very heavy fighting has taken place to the
north and northeast of Ypres, which can be said to have assumed the
importance of a second battle for that