GERM WARFARE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25306, 4 October 1947, Page 9

GERM WARFARE

Prohibition To Be Sought -

POLISH REQUEST TO U.N. (N.Z. Press Association-—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, Oct. 2. “Poland intends to ask the United Nations soon to begin negotiations for the prohibition of germ warfare,” says the United Press. “Dr. Ignace Zlotowski, the Polish nuclear scientist, who represents his country in the Atomic Energy Commission, has disclosed that he will propose a prompt start on these negotiations at the commission’s next meeting, probably in mid-October. “It is no secret that the United States, Britain, and France had developed devastating ways of killing people, animals, and growing things with bacteria by the time the war ended. It is considered certain that the Soviet has not lagged behind in that field.

“One scientist stationed at the United Nations remarked: ‘Everyone has bacteriological weapons. I have seen some of them myself. One was a bottle containing enough stuff to kill hall the people in the world.’ “The American Association of Scientific Workers sent a confidential memorandum this week to United'Nations delegates and high officials pleading for immediate consideration of bacteriological warfare. “The memorandum said: ‘Bacterial production could proceed in any civilised country irrespective of its size or relative wealth. Since it could employ the facilities of modern medicine and biological research and development, bacterial warfare could hardly be controlled by an international policing authority without interference of the most intimate sort with activities upon which the health and welfare of nations depend.’ ”