WWII gas mask with stencil inscription: 'September 1938'; donated by Bridget Lee-Davies of Narberth in 1989. Bridget Lee-Davies was a long-term supporter of Narberth Museum and a main instigator in reopening the museum in 2012 after its forced closure. 

Because of the fear of gas attack in World War Two, everyone in the UK was issued with a respirator which was a device to filter out poisonous gas. Under legislation enacted in 1939, it was an offence not to carry your gas mask at all times and anyone found to be in breach of this would be liable to a fine. There were different types which included those for adults, children, babies and specialist personnel. In all, 38 million were distributed. 

Gas masks were made of rubber to fit closely round the face with a perspex viewer for the eyes. When the wearer breathed in, air was sucked through a charcoal filter which removed the poison gas. Expelled air forced the mask away from the face briefly, only for it to return for breathing in through the filter. Gas masks have two links to colonialism: rubber and asbestos. The gas masks contained filters made of asbestos. The type of asbestos used in most wartime gas masks was chrysotile, also known as “white asbestos.” Asbestos mining saw rapid global expansion during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Colonial powers, recognising the mineral’s industrial potential, established vast mining operations in their overseas territories worldwide. Colonial exploitation fuelled the asbestos industry’s growth. British firms controlled mines in South Africa and Canada, ensuring a steady flow of the mineral to factories in England. French companies exploited deposits in New Caledonia, while Belgian interests tapped into resources in the Congo. The mineral’s fire-resistant and insulating properties made it highly valuable for industrial applications. These nations made huge profits from the extraction and exportation of asbestos. Canada, a British dominion, became the world’s largest asbestos exporter by 1920, with significant operations in Quebec. Russia, South Africa, and Australia also emerged as major producers during this period. 

The economic advantages fuelled further colonial expansion and industrial growth in the imperial centres. These imperial powers extracted vast quantities of the mineral from their colonies, using cheap or forced labour from indigenous populations, often with little regard for workers’ safety or environmental impacts, leading to long-term consequences for workers and communities. Colonial powers often suppressed information about health risk dangers to maintain their industrial advantage. As demand grew, new mines opened in various parts of the world, including Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Brazil. World War II significantly increased global asbestos consumption with military demand for fire-resistant materials. Shipyards, aircraft factories and other defence industries relied heavily on asbestos for insulation and fireproofing. It wasn’t until 1999 that the United Kingdom prohibited the import, supply, and use of asbestos. Rubber has a long connection to colonization. By the 1800s, with the huge world demand for rubber, Britain decided to grow plants in its tropical colonies. 

In 1873 Henry Wickham, a British planter living in South America, was hired to take seeds out of Amazonia to send back to Britain. Of the 70000 seeds taken only 12500 survived. Seedlings from British greenhouses were transplanted to British colonial plantations in Southeast Asia. By the 1890s 740,000 acres of rubber trees grew in Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Belgian administration of the Congo took place from the 1870s to the 1920s and was first led by Sir Henry Morton Stanley who explored under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium. Leopold extracted ivory, rubber, and minerals in the upper Congo basin for sale on the world market, formally acquiring rights to the Congo territory at the Conference of Berlin in 1885 and made the land his private property. On May 29, 1885, the king named his new colony the Congo Free State. The state would eventually include an area now held by the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Leopold’s reign in the Congo eventually earned infamy due to the increasingly brutal mistreatment of the indigenous peoples. In the Congo Free State, colonists brutalized the local population into producing rubber, for which the spread of cars and development of rubber tires created a growing international market. 

From 1885–1908, millions of Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation and disease. Failure to meet the rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. The Abir Congo Company (founded as the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company) also exploited natural rubber in the Congo Free State. The company was founded with British and Belgian capital and was based in Belgium.