SHARING ATOM SECRETS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29178, 12 April 1960, Page 17

SHARING ATOM SECRETS

French Approach

To U.S.

(N.Z. Prtst Association-Copyright) WASHINGTON, April 10. France had made some informal approaches in Washington recently in a bid to discover whether the United States would now share its nuclear weapons knowledge with the de Gaulle Government, sources in Congress reported today.

The informal soundings were said to have been made during “social” contacts between the French Ambassador, Mr Herve Alphand, and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Joint Congressional Atomic Energy Committee.

No confirmation of the report was available from the French Embassy, but the “Washington Post” today quoted Mr Alphand as denying that he had put any pressure on the nuclear and foreign relations leaders in Congress. “I never asked for anything,” the Ambassador was stated to have said. “I was not instructed to ask for anything.” The United States actually provides several other NA.T.O. allies, including West Germany, Greece, Turkey and the Netherlands, with more nuclear information than Is supplied to France. However, the “New York Times” and “Washington Post” both said today that Mr Alphand’s approach was an indication that General de Gaulle would raise the issue of France’s admission as a fourth member of the “atomic club” when he arrived in Washington on April 22 for talks with President Eisenhower. Reliable sources said the feeling both within the Eisenhower Administration and in Congress was that * France’s successful detonation of two atomic devices in the Sahara did not quality her for an exchange of nuclear information such as Britain now enjoyed. According to United States officials, one of the difficulties standing in the way of any broader agreement with France is the French refusal to permit the stockpiling of United States nuclear weapons on her territory without a veto over their use. Britain is still the one real nuclear partner of the United States and has received blueprints on weapons design and nuclear bomb material such as plutonium and uranium-235. A “Washington Post" correspondent said today that a similar agreement, if concluded during President de Gaulle’s State visit, “might well rate him a welcomehome through the Arc 'de Triomphe.” ■