BID TO STOP GIANT A-TEST

Press, Volume C, Issue 29651, 23 October 1961, Page 11

BID TO STOP GIANT A-TEST

Hopes Of Appeal By U.N. Fade

(N-Z. Press Assn.—Copgright) NEW YORK, October 22. Hopes that the United Nations General Assembly might quickly and overwhelmingly bring pressure on the Soviet Union not to explode its 50-metagon nuclear bomb are fading. M The hopes began to fade yesterday amid critical talks of cold war” tactics from some African and Asian United Nations delegates, a Reuter correspondent reported. The White House announced that President Kennedy had summoned the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Mr Adlai Stevenson, to his week-end headquarters on Rhode Island for a conference later today.

Spokesmen declined to five the reason for the talks but observers speculated it had something to do with the Soviet bomb threat "Rte initiative for General Assembly action came in a seven-Power draft resolution introduced on Friday in the Assembly's main political committee by Northern Hemisphere nations in the path of fall-out from the massive explosion. Scandinavian diplomats said yesterday they were “very unhappy" about its reception. A request for priority debate was submitted with the draft, sponsored initially by Canada. Denmark, Iceland, Japan. Norway and Sweden and later by Pakistan. But it ran into Indian and Guinean criticism and counter-pro-posals for absolute priority for an Indian draft resolution. submitted previously. Solemn Appeal The seven-Power draft would have the Assembly •‘solemnly - ’ appeal to the Soviet Union not to explode its bomb. The Indian draft calls on all the nuclear powers to refrain from further testing pending agreement on “internationally binding obligations” for the prohibition of testing. Some other African and Asian delegations were also privately critical of the seven-Power appeal. Western diplomats felt that as many as 20 or 30 of these neutral nations would abstain in the voting on it, so robbing it of its effectiveness There were also fears that the 101-member committee could become bogged down in a long procedural debate on which of the draft resolutions to give priority, in spite of Canada’s warnings that the super-bomb might be exploded within days. The Canadian External Affairs Minister (Mr H. Green) said it would be the biggest detonation ever known to man. Mr Green told the main political committee the United Nations might have only a few days, or a few hours, in which to act The result of the explosion would be a fall-out yield equal to at least two-thirds of s’l the tests conducted from 1945 to

1958 by all the nuclear powers.

Mr Per Haekkerup (Denmark) charged before the Political Committee that Mr Khrushchev had only one purpose: ‘‘To enhance the fears and concern of our already harassed peoples. “Can any statesman take the responsibility for carrying out such a teat explosion with the risk it involves to mankind—only in order to offer unnecessary proof of his country’s strength?” he asked. Mr Khrushchev told the Communist Party Congress in Moscow that the Soviet Union would conclude its current test series at the end of this month with a 50-megaton explosion. . The White House and the United States Secretary of State (Mr Rusk) have appealed to Mr Khrushchev not

to go through with the test. They said it would shower the world with a “mass of radioactive fall-out on top of the nuclear debris scattered by previous Soviet blasts. "No Protection” The British delegate (Sir Michael Wright) told the committee that a voluntary moratorium “is like Do-n Quixote's helmet. It looks impressive but ii gives no protection. “We shall not stop bombs and fall-out by pious phrases. Do not let us be like the Bourbon kings, who forgot nothing and learned nothing. Let us admit the hard lesson of experience and act accordingly.” he said. He invited the Soviet Union to come once more to the negotiating table. Britain wanted the treaty in order to halt “all the panoply of megadeath.” The British delegate rejected India’s proposal for immediate renewal of an uninspected moratorium on nuclear weapons tests until such explosions were totally prohibited. Mr Khrishna Menon, of India, said neither the Soviet Union nor the United States could have resumed tests without advance preparation. “The fact is,” he said, “these two great Powers think alike on tests in power terms. . . . Both sides say they have resumed tests in order to protect us. All I can say is: ‘God save us from our protectors.’ ” The committee will resume its debate on the two requests for priority discussion tomorrow afternoon.