World Reactions To Soviet A-Bomb Move

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28551, 2 April 1958, Page 13

World Reactions To Soviet A-Bomb Move

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON. April 1. The Russian decision to suspend nuclear tests and the Western counter-proposal that preliminary summit talks be held in the second half of April were both widely commented on in British newspapers today. Some newspapers tended to dismiss the Russian decision on nuclear tests as a cynical propaganda move. The “Daily Sketch.” for instance, headed its report “K’s (Khrushchev’s) Big April First Trick,” but other newspapers favoured an acceptance of the Russian decision on its face value and advocated a similar gesture by Britain. In many newspapers, too, there was regret that the Russians had once again been able to score **another brilliant propaganda victory” at the expense of the West and that Britain had not taken similar initiative earlier. “The Times” commented: “In the battle for world opinion that is going on the Russians have lately been allowed to walk away with far too many easy successes while the West appeared confused.”

The Peking “People’s Daily,” organ of the Chinese Communist Party, said today that the Russian decision to halt nuclear tests w r as “a great initiative” and “will be welcomed with boundless gratitude by people all over the world.”

The West German Chancellor Dr. Adenauer, said in Bonn last night that if Russia’s announcement to end nuclear tests represented a serious offer there was a possibility of a general controlled abolition of atomic weapons. In Paris “Le Figaro” today criticised Russia’s announcement *Le Figaro” said the announcement was “a ‘declaration of intentions not accompanied by any indication concerning the ways and means of control, without with the gesture of the Soviet Union cannot be taken seriously. “Paris-Journal” said the Russian decision to stop tests “does not facilitate the task of a Western policy which does not give the impression of really knowing what it wants” “Propaganda Manoeuvre” The United States today branded Russia’s move to halt atomic tests as a propaganda manoeuvre It said that the Kremlin hoped to create the image of a “peaceloving Soviet Government” while it openly defied the United Nations. In a statement approved by President Eisenhower and issued

at the State Department, the United States cautioned the free world against any weakening of its defences in the face of a Russian promise that could be broken secretly at any time. The United States moved swiftly to offset what officials conceded was a shrewdly-timed psychological step by the Soviet. The American statement was released within an hour after the Moscow announcement, which had been expected for days. But some Congressional Democrats accused the Eisenhower Administration of permitting Russia to score a major propaganada victory by timid and uncertain action in the disarmament field.