ATOM SECRETS EXCHANGE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27368, 5 June 1954, Page 7

ATOM SECRETS EXCHANGE

Mr Dulles Appeals To Congress

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 3. The United States Secretary of State (Mr John Foster Dulles) today asked Congress to amend the Atomic Secrets Act so that the United States _ could give its allies a limited amount of atomic military information. Mr Dulles was testifying before the Joint Congressional Atomic Energy Committee on the need for amending the 1946 Secrets Act, which bars the transmission of such information abroad.

“The present legal restraint on the disclosure of even a limited type of weapons information has become a real handicap in our collective effort with our allies to build the necessary strength to resist aggression,” he said.

Mr Dulles said that the Soviet Union, by developing its own atom bomb in 1946, had broken the United States monopoly.

Treachery and treason, and the scientific abilities of the Soviets, he said, had combined to create a situation in which “potential enemies have a knowledge vastly superior to that of most of the nations which we count as friends.”

“We need to assert leadership in turning atomic energy to the peaceful service of mankind,” Mr Dulles said. “To some extent this is merely enlightened self-interest since, if we do not take this step, our foreign raw material sources will tend to dry up and be turned to uses for which others may supply the technology. “Also, w’e need to equip our allies with the knowledge which will enable them to counter the kind of atomic warfare which we know the munist forces are equipped to wage.” Mr Dulles said there was a growing tendency for certain raw materials supply nations, which were not industrially well advanced, to turn to other countries for nuclear power information because “they have been disappointed by our inability to give them significant help.” v If this trend continued, he said, the interests of the United States would be seriously affected.