CHINESE A-BOMB

Press, Volume C, Issue 29604, 29 August 1961, Page 22

CHINESE A-BOMB

Prediction By U.S. Negotiator (N.Z.P. A.-Renter—Copyright) WASHINGTON. August 27. China might have its own nuclear bomb next year or in 1963, but would probably lack the means for its effective delivery, the chief United States negotiator at the Geneva test ben talks, Mr Arthur Dean, said today. The Chinese weapon be “a very expensive bomb, or a very dirty bomb," Mt Dean said in a television interview taped before he returned to Geneva, where the three-Power talks will resume tomorrow. The United States spokesman said the Chinese needed to invent a vehicle for the bomb’s, accurate delivery. “That’s much more difficult,” he said. Mr Dean said the Russians were not help:nig the Chinese much in the field of nuclear weapons. “That’s one of the caused of friction between Mao Tse-tung, the Chinese Premier, and Premier Khrushchev,” he said. In another television programme, the chairman of the Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, Mr Chet Holifield, said the United States should resume nuclear weapons testing but at the same time continue the Geneva test ban talks. The Californian Democrat said he doubted whether the United States could “risk its national security by delaying much longer.” Another speaker, Senator Maurine Neuberger YDemocrat, Oregon) disagreed. “If we do go in for testing, then we know Russia will be testing. This just invites her to test,” she said. The former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Admiral Lewis Strauss, said peaceful .tests should be resumed. The deadlocked conference on the banning of teste will resume in Geneva tomorrow with the United States delegation, on instructions from President Kennedy, making the maximum effort to reach agreement with Russia. Mr Dean flew back on Wednesday after two months of consultations in Washington. Mr Dean said: “All the goodwill in the world by the United Kingdom and United States will, of course, be to no avail unless and until the Soviet Union gives some sign of reasonableness and good faith, which so far it has not done.”