'Cliffe President Supports Petition Against Gas War Group Asks Approval Of Geneva Agreement

Mary I. Bunting, president of Radcliffe, agreed on Friday to support a petition asking the United States Senate to ratify the Geneva Protocol of 1925 "with the expressed understanding that irritant gases and anti-plant chemicals are to be included within its scope."

"This is a cause that I was very happy to sponsor," said Mrs. Bunting. "Anything we can do to hold back weapons like these is all to the good."

Protocol Bans Gas

The Geneva Protocol prohibits the use in war of "asphyxiating, poisonous, or other gases, and of all analogous liquids. materials or devices" and "the use of bacteriological methods of warfare." The Protocol does not prohibit either research and development of CBW weapons or their retaliatory use, nor does it prohibit the use of gas for police purposes.

President Nixon will submit the Protocol to the Senate for ratification at the beginning of March. Some observers have said that if the Senate does ratify the Protocol, the Executive Branch may circulate letters to the other signatories explaining that the U.S. position does not interpret the Protocol to cover tear gases anddefoliants, both of which are now being used in Vietnam.

Eighty-four nations have ratified the Protocol. The United States, which helped write the Protocol, and Japan are the only major industrial nations now with holding ratification.

Public Education

J. Brian Walsh '72, one of the organizers of the petition, said, "We want the Senate to make certain that U.S. acceptance of the Protocol includes the prohibition of tear gas and defoliants. We hope to educate the public as to the effect of these agents on the ecology of Vietnam."

Kevin J. Middlobrook '72, another organizer, added that the group is trying to extend the campaign to other campuses. They plan to circulate the petition here next week.

Matthew S. Meselson. professor of Biology, who is planning a study of the effects of herbicides on the ecology of Vietnam for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is another sponsor of the petition.

"The Protocol by its very words prohibits the use of CBW weapons in war," he said. "For 45 years, from the end of World War I until our use of tear gas in Vietnam, all the important powers understood this distinction and did not use tear gas in any war. If anyone doesn't see the distinction now. it's because they don't want to see it," he said.

Most Ban Tear Gas

Most of the nations which ratified the Protocol agreed in 1930 with the declared British position that "the use in war of 'other' gases, including lachrymatory [tear] gases was prohibited." The British are currently trying to redefine their position.

The organizers of the petition at Harvard are planning an open meeting tonight at 8 p. m. in Adams H-2 to decide on strategy.