SECURITY AIMS AFFECTED

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24640, 9 August 1945, Page 5

SECURITY AIMS AFFECTED

Big Three Action

Forecast

WEAPON FOR GOOD OR ILL (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) i LONDON, August 8. “It appears that the atomic bomb will not be shared with apy Power other than -those directly concerned with its production,” says Reuter’s military correspondent. “As soon as experts of the Big Three have had an oppor* tunity of studying all its strategic implications, it is likely that consultations will begin to consider methods for an agreed control over the manufacture and use of the bomb. Its offensive uses at the moment are in the limelight, but its use for defence may equally outmode the present forms of aerial warfare.

“Experts are so far unable to do anything more than gasp at the sheer magnitude of the revolution facing them, but the Governments of the Big Three are expected to act speedily to regulate this unforeseen situation.

“Strategic decisions taken at Teheran, Yalta, and Potsdam, according to military experts, are already outdated. Security is no longer definable, for instance, by the control Dardanelles and the Suez Canal, or by the possession of this or that port, river, or mountain. Possession of the Rhine and Cologne, with the radiating roads, might be an economic advantage to France, but can no longer be claimed as a measure of strategic necessity. The same is true of many other, claims to strategic frontiers in eastern and south-eastern Europe. Nothing under international peace can give security.”

President Truman told the press in Washington: “The atomic bomb has raised hopes. • We have' in our hands the most powerful weapon for war and peace ever devised. It means a wonderful peace-time release of energy it its powers can be harnessed for commercial use, and industrial studies indicate that it may be the greatest discovery of any age for the benefit of the people." "Mr Attlee will make an interim statement on the British Government’s attitude towards the production and use of the atomic bomb as soon as Parliament reassembles after the State opening of the new session by the King on August 15,” says the political correspondent of the “Daily Mail.” “The British and American Governments. for the time being at any rate, will control the production and use of the atomic bomb. This great advance of science, with its revolutionary potentialities affecting human outlook and industry, has presented both Governments with one of the most urgent problems of the age. “Members of the Labour Government, apart from Mr Attlee, had not the remotest idea mat the atomic bomb had been made , and was to be used against Japan.” i •, The “Daily Mail” in a leading article says: “It is imperative that from the very hour of discovery not a moment should be lost in making plans to control the new power, to make it a good servant, not an evil 'master of mankind. ' , • “We must put out of our mmd» all wishful thinking that it may remain in the keeping of a few passionless supermen pledged to use it to preserve the world’s peace. “Control will also be necessary in the peace-time application of atomic energy to our way of life. Vast industries, on which millions of men and women now depend for their existence, may in a few years be made obsolete. Provision must be ready for those who are uprooted by the change.” Warning in “The Times” “The Times,” in a leading article; says: “The schemes for world Security, founded on the maintenance of bases at strategic points of the globe, will call for exhaustive reconsideration in view of the discovery of the new power. Beyond all doubt, unless atomic power is turned to serve the aims of peace it can speedily make an end of civilised life on earth.” _ , „ . t The president of the Royal Society (Sir Henry Dale) in a letter to “The Times” said; “The abandonment of any national claim to secrecy about scientific discoveries must be a prerequisite for any kind of international control, which is obviously indispensable if we are to use atomic energy to its full value and to avoid the final disaster its misuse might bring.” Sir John Anderson, broadcasting,

said: "The control of atomic power v calls for statesmanship of the high*** order. The establishment of any organisation for the maintenance df world peace and security would Obviously be a sheer mockery if means could not be found of guaranteeing effective control of such a potent instrument of war. There is no higher task for the United Nations statesmen round the conference table."

The Vatican newspaper. Romano," in a leading article, says: * “This instrument of unbelievable destruction will remain a temptation. If not for our horrified contemporaries, then for posterity, who leam so little from history and so readily forget the lessons of experience.” “End of War as Now Known”

“The end of war as it is known at the present time will be the development of the atomic bomb,’'’says the “Dail. Express,” “No battleship oould stand a near miss from an atomic bomb or a hit from a loipedo fitted with an atomic fuse. No aeroplane could last with atomic shells bursting in the*sky nearby.” ’ . ' . > /. British scientist who helped in the development of the atomic bomb said that if the Germans had developed it first “none of us in Britain would be here now.” He added that it was impossible yet to fheasure the destructive effects of the bomb.* At a conservative estitnate the bomb is a tenth of the size of a'4ooolb blockbuster. One bomb dropped on a town would be the equivalent of a severe earthquake.* It would utterly remove the place. The “Daily Express” adds: “It was once believed that splitting the atom on a large scale, as happens ih the atomic bomb would mase - all other atoms in the, world split in sympathy; but experiments earned out at. Cambridge disproved such a theory, “The world’s supply of uranium Is very small, but using apparatus called a cyclotron, scientists at Cambridge .were able to give the properties of uranium to other substances, which' may eventually be used in atomic weapons not-only bombs, but torpedoes and artillery and naval shells and in- y fantry weapons may be filled with atomic explosive. “A British aircraft official’said that, industrially harnessed, atomic energy could drive the liner Queen Mary • across the Atlantic on a tea-cup of fuel. The new discovery is x far the greatest in modern times, but its real effect will not be felt until it is applied to peaceful uses. When atomicenergy comes into industrial use a small amount built into a car comd operate it for a lifetime. It would be simple to provide central heat lor a large house with atcmic energy,’ be* cause it would require hardly any fuel. Such developments will not be possible for many years yet." . ,