New Soviet Test Proposal

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29713, 5 January 1962, Page 11

New Soviet Test Proposal

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

MOSCOW, January 4

The Soviet Union proposed to conclude without delay an agreement prohibiting the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, under water, or in outer space, the Soviet news agency Tass reported yesterday.

A Government statement, forwarded to the United Nations Disarmament Committee said the Soviet Government’s proposals on such a ban “provided a good basis for an early agreement that would put an end to all nuclear weapons tests.” Russia also rejected as “absurd” Western claims that the Soviet Union wanted disarmament without control. It described as “obviously tendentiously drawn-up” the Anglo-American report of December 19 to the commission on the Soviet proposals. The British-American report said that, even before the Geneva nuclear test ban conference resumed at the end of November, the Soviet Union had dashed hopes by presenting a draft agreement without any international controls. The statement accused

Britain, the United States, and France of "torpedoing” the nuclear test moratorium. Britain and the United State® had carried on a "double-faced policy,” Tass stated. While some North Atlantic Treaty members negotiated with the Soviet Union others carried out nuclear weapons tests “in the interests of the whole N.A.T.O. alignment,” it said.