“ATOMIC AGE DIPLOMACY”

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28630, 5 July 1958, Page 13

“ATOMIC AGE DIPLOMACY”

Press Comment In London

LONDON. July 4. The strongest move in the whole history of atomic-age diplomacy came from the Russian Embassy in London last night, according to the “News Chronicle.” It circulated, for the maximum publicity, the anonymous letter purporting to be from an American pilot stationed in Britain saying he would drop a bomb off England to demonstrate the terrors of atomic war. The letter said the bomb would be loosed into the North Sea “some time after July 1 . . . not very far from the coast of Eng land, but far enough so that too many people won’t be killed.”

For Russian diplomatic strategy the letter could not have dropped on the world at a more timely moment, said the “News Chronicle.*’ It coincided with a dramatic new Khrushchev appeal for an East-West conference to end the danger of world war through a surprise attack, and gave almost sensational point to the warnings of the Russians (at the current Geneva talks on Hbomb control) of the need to end nuclear tests.

The newspaper said the immediate reaction of the United I States Embassy in London was to regard the letter as a fake and the Foreign Office was understood Ito hold to the same view. Howlever, routine inquiries would be