Tenth Session of the Temporary Mixed Commission for the Reduction of Armaments

Tenth Session of the Temporary Mixed Commission for the Reduction of Armaments

The Committee on Chemical Warfare was asked by the Temporary Mixed Commission to report on the "probable effects of chemical discoveries in future wars". This was later enlarged to include bacteriological warfare.

1924

The committee believes that BW cannot be localized or managed effectively. They also feel that preventive measures in most countries would render BW useless. BW is unlikely to be useful for poisoning weapons, but could potentially be employed to destroy crops via airplane dissemination. Ultimately, BW is not considered a strong threat at the moment whereas CW is. Overall, the experts concluded that there was not currently military utility for biological agents. However, they expressed concern that technology development may increase the likelihood, and gave the recommendation that prohibition of such weapons may be prudent.