USE OF ATOMIC BOMBS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27990, 9 June 1956, Page 5

USE OF ATOMIC BOMBS

Sir, —Let me assure M. B. Mitchell that my sanity is complete. I have good reasons for believing that Russia will be an aggressor. The Russian official publication, “Soviet Today,” of September, 1939, on page eight, states that Russia has the most powerful offensive weapons, and that her army “has been uniformly trained to wage a strategic, offensive.” On page nine the amount spent on offensive armaments in 1933 was given as 1.5 billion roubles, increasing yearly up to 34 billion in 1938. In sterling this equals five billion pounds. This is offensive, not defensive armament. However if the United States were to attack Russia, would our correspondents who desire America and Britain to be unprepared, agree that Russia should not defend itself?—Yours, etc., GORDON P. S. SMITH. New Plymouth, June 8, 1956.

Sir.—lt slowly dawns on the statesmen of the West that the use of atomic bombs they hoped to monopolise would bring about total annihilation. The war method being a means to total end, they are at the end of their militaristic tether. They are now faced with inter-nation economic and ideo-cultural competition making the huge military apparatus and armament business a dead loss to society. The new situation gives the military the shivers and the governments the creeps, for preparation for war can no longer provide a sham of full employment. Compulsory training, too, is obsolete and its cancerous growth should be stopped forthwith. The atomic bomb cannot be used. War is on the way out.—Yours, etc., NO MORE WAR PREPARATIONS. June 8, 1956.