ATOM WEAPONS CONTROL

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28532, 11 March 1958, Page 13

ATOM WEAPONS CONTROL

“Stopping Of Tests

Not Vital”

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

(Rec. 9 p.m.) WASHINGTON,.March 9.

Mr Dulles, the United States Secretary of State, has told a Congressional committee that the stopping of nuclear weapons tests was not in itself a vital question in the broader problem of controlling atomic arms.

The manufacture of atomic weapons must also be stopped, he told a closed session of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. Some of his testimony before the committee was issued tonight.

Mr Dulles said an agreement with the Russians merely to stop weapons tests was neither possible nor desirable.

The question of testing nuclear weapons was not very vital because of an increased trend toward cleaner bombs which did not poison the atmosphere.

The Russians were not going to stop tests just because the United States did so, while other American allies insisted on going ahead with their tests. “Therefore, I do not quite see the likelihood of an agreement, just between the Soviet Union and the United States.

“Nor, if it is only limited to testing, do I see that it would really go to the heart of the problem.” he said. Mr Dulles also said the merger of Egypt and Syria appeared to have lessened the threat of Russia taking over Syria. Preparation For Summit Talks LONDON, March 9. Britain’s Ambassador in Moscow, Sir Patrick Reilly, will fly to London tomorrow for talks on summit preparations, according to the “Daily Mail.” The reason for this move was the insistence by the Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan) that a way must be found quickly to cut through the summit “snowdrifts.” Sir Patrick Reilly will meet Mr Macmillan soon after his arrival. UNEMPLOYMENT FORECAST “Shadow Creeping Over Britain” (Rec. 11 p.m.) GLASGOW, March 10. Unemployment was beginning to creep over Britain in the same way as in the depression of 1930 and 1931, the deputy Leader of the Labour Opposition, Mr James Griffiths, said last night. He was speaking in support of Mrs Mary McAlister, the Labour candidate in the Kelgingrove byelection. Mr Griffiths said: “The shadow of unemployment is beginning to creep over this land once’more. “I have spent most of my life, until comparatively recently.

under its shadow, and so have you. It is beginning once more.”

Mr Griffiths added that those who remembered and had studied the inter-war years, and the depressions of the 1930’s would not have missed the significance of one thing—that everywhere the prices of primary products were falling. The price of copper in Central Africa had fallen from £3lO a ton to £lB6 a ton in three months. “Look back and search the history of the 1930’s and the depression of 1930 and 1931, and it begins in this way,” he said. “It begins with the peasant and the primary producer. As they start tumbling down, all the rest of us tumble down after them.”