Stevenson Warns On A-bomb Spread

Press, Volume C, Issue 29517, 19 May 1961, Page 11

Stevenson Warns On A-bomb Spread

tN.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright I WASHINGTON, May 18. The threat of Communist China becoming a nuclear power might forcetthe Soviet Union to co-operate with the West on a real disarmament programme, the chief United States delegate to the United Nations (Mr Stevenson) said last night.

“Let us remember,” he said, “that the Soviet is bounded on the west by uncertain and hostile satellites, and on the other side by that aggressive new mammoth of the East—Red China” Mr Stevenson outlined his views in a speech at the annual banquet of Washington’s Princeton Club “The Chinese Communists, even at this stage, are already a problem for the Soviets. What will they be like after they become a nuclear power? “This is something for the whole world to worry about, including. or especially. Russia “It may be difficult for even just two or three Powers to find a solution to arms control, but once nuclear weapons become common property the mind simply reels at the prospect of ever resolving the problem.” he said “Russia, like the United States, is a great Power, with or without nuclear weapons Does it wish to see this advantage reduced by the emergence of other nuclear Powers? This is the crucial question it must soon decide. “If reason prevails. I think there is a chance of their co-operating with us on a real disarmament programme. I pray that this may be so," he said. Mr Stevenson said the new round of East-West disarmament negotiations, scheduled to start in Geneva before July 31, would be a real test of Soviet intentions toward significant international co-operation. He said that the pistol was called the great equaliser because it abolished the power of a big man over a little one. “The hydrogen bomb is also ah equaliser, the greatest of them all

“No doubt the Soviet Union and the United States could strike the heaviest blows in a nuclear war. but even a small atomic power will be able to wreak unbearable damage on any enemy.” he saitfi

He described the attempt of the Soviet Union to substitute a three-man secretariat for the single post held by the United Nations Secretary-General (Mr Hammarskjold) as “a declaration of war on the United Nations itself.” He said the defeat the Soviet Union suffered at the last General Assembly on that issue was a source of some comfort, but added that if Soviet strategy was “really an attempt to sabotage international organisations, there is cause for alarm.”