BRITISH U.S. TALKS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28536, 15 March 1958, Page 13

BRITISH U.S. TALKS

June Meeting In White House

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, March 14. Washington officials saw the decision of President Eisenhower and the British Prime Minister, Mr Macmillan, to confer in June as a clear sign that there would be no EastWest summit meeting before then, a Reuter correspondent reposted today. He said these officials believed the Washington talks would not have been arranged if the two leaders. had felt a summit meeting to be in immediate prospect. However, he said, there was still a widespread feeling among United States officials that major East-West negotiations would in fact take place in 1958.

The correspondent said summit talks were certain to be a prime subject of the "general discussion” which, according to the official announcement, Mr Macmillan and President Eisenhower will have on June 9-10.

If a date for a summit meeting had already been set by then, the Macmillan-Eisenhower meeting was expected to be a preparatory session for the East-West conference.

The possibility of dividing the Western "disarmament package” and negotiating with the Soviet Union for a trial ban on nuclear tests under international inspection was believed likely to be one of the main topics for the June White House meeting. Considerable publicity has been given in Washington to current British agitation for nuclear disarament. In Washington, Mr Dulles, the Secretary of State, said at a recent preSs conference that the United States saw certain prospects of change in the established Western policy of linking a ban on nuclear tests with agreement to cut off production of nuclear material for weapons purposes.

The British Prime Minister was also expected to seek a first-hand account from President Eisenhower on the United States economy and its prospects, the Reuter correspondent said. Official economists in Washington had forecast that although more jobs may soon become available as a result of Government anti-recession measures, the economic recovery may not be complete until well into the second half o£ the year. Diplomats also expected that Mr Macmillan would take up certain subjects purely or mainly concerned with British-American relations. These included the supply of medium range missiles to Britain this year under the recent agreement and the broadened exchange of atomic secrets.

UNDERGROUND . A-BOMBS Future Patterns Of Use In U.S. (Rec. 11.10 p.m.) . NEW YORK, March 14. Atomic explosions up to 10 times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima may be an everyday occurrence within two years almost anywhere in the United States under a civilian programme being pressed by scientists of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, the “New York Times” reported today. It said the programme called for harmless underground detonations which the scientists were convinced Would bring immeasurable benefits to national policy, private industry, and the general public as well as atomic weapon development. The “New York Times” said it had learned that preliminary talks between commission officials and private industry for the application of atomic bomb detonations to civilian purposes as soon as possible were already under way. It had also learned, it said, that the commission was collaborating with the United States Geological Survey on plans to use such detonations to create great natural reservoirs in sections now hopelessly arid. This whole new field of civilian use of atomic explosions had been opened up by the success of an experimental underground detonation at the commission’s Nevada proving grounds on September 19 last year, in completely suppiessing and dissipating the troublesome and sometimes hazardous radioactive after-effects of nuclear explosions. The "New York Times’’ said the first application of the underground atomic bomb would probably be in the oil industry At least three major oil companies were pursuing discussions with the officials of the Atomic Energy Commission about trying the technique as soon as possible to free oil deposits now inaccessible After oil. the newspaper said, the likeliest applications were in the mining industry, civil engineering, and the creation of water reservoirs by blasting sponge-like masses of shattered rock in terrain where the run-off was now lost through impermeability.

DIVORCE OF SHAH Persian Court Announcement (Rec. 9 p.m.) TEHERAN. March 14. The dissolution of the marriage of the Shah and Queen Soraya on account of childlessness was announced today in a communique from the Royal Court. The Shah and Queen Soraya. who is 25, were married on January 12, 1951. The Queen is the daughter of a Persian nobleman. Mr Khalil Esfandiary Bakhtiari, who is now Persian Ambassador in West Germany, and his German wife. Ava Karl The Queen has been staying in Cologne with her father. West German police have been guarding the Ambassador's villa next door to the Embassy for several days.