RUSSIA THREATENS TO RESUME A-TESTS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29264, 23 July 1960, Page 13

RUSSIA THREATENS TO RESUME A-TESTS

Bid To Halt Underground Blasts In U.S. f (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) GENEVA, July 21. The Soviet Union said today that it would resume nuclear weapons tests it the United States went ahead with its planned series of underground research explosions, American Associated Press reported.

The Soviet delegate, Mr Semyon Tsarapkin, told the threenation talks in Geneva that the planned American programme really aimed at the development of new American nuclear weapons.

He said the moment the United States went ahead with the explosions, the Soviet Union would feel free, and in effect would feel obliged in the interest of its national defence, to resume its own testing.

It was the most acrimonious session of the 20-month-old conference for more than a year, the news agency said. Mr Tsarapkin's bitter statement prompted the United States delegate. Mr James J. Wadsworth, to -complain about the Soviet delegate’s “cold war attitude.” Mr Wadsworth said he resented Mr Tsarapkin’s "arrogant tone” and added: "The United States is not going to be threatened.” He said Mr Tsarapkin had deliberately misinterpreted and distorted the American research programme, which was intended mainly to improve existing techniques for identifying underground nuclear tests.