FIRST A-BOMB PROJECT

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27859, 6 January 1956, Page 6

FIRST A-BOMB PROJECT

Churchill’s Attitude

Criticised

“CONTENT WITH EXISTING EXPLOSIVES” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 9 p.m.) . LONDON, January 5. Dr. Jacob Bronowski,, research chief of Britain’s National Coal Board, today criticised bishops, generals, and Sir Winston Churchill for “unwisdom’’ on scientific progress. “I want more scientists to be cultured, literate, and human, but I am not in the least impressed when I am lectured on the subject by bishops in the crorespondence columns of newspapers, or by generals at school prize days,’’ he told an education conference at Harrogate (Yorkshire).

Citing what he called “a slightly mischievous example,” Dr. Bronowski recalled the opening words, of Mr (as he then was) Churchill's directive to set up the project to make an atomic bomb.

The words Dr. Bronowski credited to Sir Winston Churchill were: ‘Although personally I am quite content with the existing explosives....” Dr. Bronowski commented: “This bland phrase is a monument to a non-scientiflc education.’’

In a dictatorship, Sir Winston Churchill’s “satisfaction with existing explosives” would have been the end, not the beginning of serious research towards an atomic bomb, Dr. Bronowski said. If a dictator said he were satisfied with the existing state of science, who would be strong enough to show discontent? “I do not much care for atomic bombs myself, but still less do I care to have them judged in phrases like Sir Winston Churchill's,’’ Dr. Bronowski added.

“In 1941 they might have uteighed hie and death between this country and Germany. What brought down the scales was not the wisdom of statesmen, but the democratic tradition which caused Sir Winston Churchill to waive his own unwisdom.”

In 20 or 30 years.. Dr. Bronowski added, educated men would speak the language of Science. ,