RUSSIA’S ATOM BOMB

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26032, 8 February 1950, Page 2

RUSSIA’S ATOM BOMB

Sir,—ln this morning’s paper you printed a report to the effect that at a conference commencing on February 9 in England, “secrecy regulations will be reviewed in the light of the atomic explosion in Russia.” What and when was this explosion? The only reference which I have noticed was a small paragraph in your paper, from a Russian-controlled German source. It stated that the Russians had exploded an atomic bomb in mountainous country in an attempt to turn a river at its source to irrigate formerly arid steppes. Was this the occasion?— Yours, etc., L. McC. February 7, 1950.

[As reported in a double-column article on the cable page in “The Press’*- of September 26 the United , States, British, and Canadian Governments announced that an atomic explosion occurred in Russia “within recent weeks.” According to Berlin sources, the political adviser of the Soviet military administration in Germany (Mr V. S. Semenov), as reported the same day, said that Russia’s atomic experiments had reached a decisive stage as long ago as January, 1949. In the same article it was reported that Tass, the official Soviet news agency, stated that Russia had had the secret of the atomic bomb since 1947.—Ed., “The Press.”]