U.S. Fails To Use Soviet Science Reports

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28446, 28 November 1957, Page 15

U.S. Fails To Use Soviet Science Reports

(R£c. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 25.

Thousands of Soviet scientific reports were collecting dust on Library of Congress shelves for lack of a programme to translate them, the “New York Times” said today.

The newspaper said that as a result, the Government and American scientists were unaware of much of the scientific research being performed in Russia. “In many cases, the Government and industry are spending time and money to discover scientific facts already established and reported, by the Soviet Union,” the “New York Times” said.

The paper said the problem of bringing the flood of scientific information under control had long concerned the scientific community, but like many scientific problems it had received scant attention before the two Soviet satellites began orbiting. About 20,000 Soviet scientific reports and journals were received by the United States Government every year, but of these only a fraction were translated or summarised.

It said Government scientific officials estimated that of the 1200 Soviet scientific publications every year, 200 were of major importance to American scientists. But of these 200, only 30 were being translated under Government sponsorship. To handle world-wide scientific information. Russia, in 1952, established the All-Union Institute of Scientific and Technical Information in Moscow, which had a permanent staff of 2300 translators, abstractors, and publishers Supplemented by a part-time staff of

20,000 translators and abstractors. In contrast, the Office of Technical Services, the only United States Government counterpart to the Soviet institute, had a staff of 35 persons for indexing and abstracting scientific reports, and this office dealt with only research work performed under American Government contracts. Evidence at Inquiry Dr. John Hagen, director of the Navy’s Vanguard project, told the Senate Preparedness Subcommittee today that the United States might have beaten the Russians to launching an earth satellite if an all-out effort had been made. If the project had been given over-riding priority, “I think we probably would have come very close to the same time (as Sputnik I) if not ahead of it.” But, he said that the Vanguard project always was placed secondary to the United States ballistic missile projects, and it also had some money limitations. Dr. Hagen told the Senators that all tests of the three-stage launching vehicle for the American satellite “have exceeded our expectations. This gives us confidence that the project will be successful in launching a fullyinstrumented, 20-inch satellite early next year. Without giving any date, Dr. Hagen said the project was prepared to try to put into orbit a small six-inch test satellite next month. He said there probably would be three firings of these. Lieutenant-General James Doolittle (ret.) told the committee there should be an “immediate, substantial increase” in military funds, and said: “We must go full

out on developing an anti-missile to the intercontinental ballistic missile. He said he believed the United States at present remained “stronger militarily than Russia,” in spite of falling behind in the development of land-launched missiles.

“But the Russians’ rate of progress is more rapid than ours,” he said. “Unless we continue to forge ahead, she will surpass us.” General Doolittle, chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, called for a major strengthening of the Strategic Air Command with a heavy increase in aircraft and “missiles as fast as they can be developed and supplied.” In giving his opinion of present United States strength as compared to Russia, General Doolittle said he did not believe th? Russians had any weapon which would match United States air-to-air missiles, including those with nuclear warheads. Such missiles are fired from a plane at another plane. General Doolittle said: “1 am confident that our Air Force as at present constituted will be our basic weapon for the immediate future. “Some missiles will first supplement and gradually replace some of our aircraft. But I do not expect to see aeroplanes out of the air, militarily, in my lifetime.” DISTRESS SIGNALS When a tickling throat or sudden sneeze, signals a coining cold take Baxters Lung Preserver. “Baxters" cuts a cold at the root, clears the phlegm and clears the ain passages. At all' chemists and, stores. Baxters Ltd.. Chch. —Advt