HYDROGEN BOMB WARFARE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 128, 15 March 1950, Page 3

HYDROGEN BOMB WARFARE

MR STRAUSS STATES ' VIEWS DESTRUCTION OF WORLD HELD IMPROBABLE (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 13. He could see no basis for the fear that hydrogen bomb warfare would destroy the world, said Mr Lewis Strauss, a member of the United States Atomic Energy Commission to-day. He said that radio-active pollution sufficient to destroy the world would entail an effort far beyond that needed to win a war against a major Power. Mr Strauss, who is one of the original members of the commission, said: “The hydrogen bomb could devastate areas the size of cities, and perhaps even the kind of territory that could be occupied by an army, but atomic weapons are not the only ones which are modern threats to life. Man-made plagues and diseases are not less terrible to contemplate.’’ Mr Strauss said that the prototype of an atomic power unit for ships would probably be developed within a few years, but the buildhig of units for aeroplanes would take considerably longer. He added that he would not be surprised if there was a relationship between Russia’s achievement Of an atomic explosion last autumn and the secrets given to Soviet agents by Klaus Fuchs, who was recently sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment in London. Mr Strauss will return to the banking business on his retirement from the commission on May 15.