POLICY ON H-BOMB

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28930, 25 June 1959, Page 13

POLICY ON H-BOMB

Labour-T.U.C. Agreement

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, June 24. The Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress will agree on a new joint declaration on the H-bomb today, according to the “Daily Mail.” It will make very few concessions to those who want a Labour Government to renounce the bomb in a “go-’t-alone” gesture to the world, according to the newspaper. Reuters reported that Socialist “ban the bomb” advocates thus suffered a fresh reverse last night at a private meeting called by the Labour Party to consider its new draft statement on nuclear policy. Prominent Left-wingers emerged from the 150-minute meeting complaining that they had had no real chance to ventilate their objections. The executive will meet later today to consider the new policy statement, which was approved earlier yesterday by the international sub-committees both of the Labour Party executive and the Trade Union Congress. The four main points of the policy are; (1) Britain keeps the bomb under

present circumstances. (2) Tests will be suspended indefinitely by the next Labour government. (3) Attempts will be made to create a “non-nuclear club” in which all nations except the United States and Russia would abandon nuclear weapons. (4) The next Labour government would honour North Atlantic Treaty obligations but would seek tighter control over American bases in Britain.