Mr Holyoake Regrets Pacific H-Test Plans

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29744, 10 February 1962, Page 12

Mr Holyoake Regrets Pacific H-Test Plans

( N.Z, Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 9. The Prime Minister, Mr Holyoake, said tonight the British-American decision to prepare for nuclear tests was an “obvious but regrettable sequel to the massive Russian tests and to Russian intransigence at the Geneva talks aiming to ban nuclear tests.”

He said he had sought assurances some time ago that the dangers of fall-out would be reduced to the absolute minimum.

“If the tests proceed, there is an immediate problem of radioactive fall out," he said. “The Christmas Island testing area is adjacent to New Zealand’s dependent territories, especially the Northern Cook Islands and the Tokelaus. It is also near Western Samoa which, though now independent, continues to be of close interest and concern to New, Zealand,” Mr Holyoake said. “Madness To Go On”

He asked: “Where is this race to end? A halt must be called. It is madness to go on in this way. The Americans and the British recognise that.

“The decision at present is only to prepare for testing in the atmosphere. The United States is to decide within a month whether such tests should proceed. There is still some hope, then.

though we cannot place too much emphasis on it, that the tests may not, in fact, be held.

“Perhaps there is no means of telling for sure how far their recent tests enabled the Russians to catch up or even get ahead of the West in nuclear capability,” said Mr Holyoake. “It must be assumed, however, that at least the Soviet Union has made substantial gains.

“Whether these advances have reached the point of threatening Western security is a problem that has been exercising Western experts in evaluating the incomplete evidence of Russian tests since they began five months ago. The Anglo-American decision is being based on this evaluation, conducted over a period of months. The decision is not being taken precipitately, but with proper regard for the gravity of it. “Forced On West” “Let it be abundantly clear how this situation arose. It was forced on the West by the Soviet Union. Having agreed to suspend tests and while negotiating to conclude a treaty banning tests for good, the Soviet Union was secretly and perfidiously mounting the largest series

of tests ever undertaken. It is impossible to concede that the West can thus let the Soviet Union gain the upper hand.

“Furthermore, having gone a long way in detailed negotiation, over a period of years, leading to the conclusion of a treaty banning nuclear tests, the Soviet Union has reversed its position and scrapped all that had been painstakingly negotiated,” Mr Holyoake said. Apart from the immediate danger of fall-out, there was the danger that international tension would deteriorate further. The Russians had also said that if the Americans resumed atmospheric testing, they would consider themselves justified in conducting even more atmospheric tests of their own, Mr Holyoake said. The Americans and British were making “a supreme effort” to find a way out, through a meeting of Foreign Ministers. This AngloAmerican initiative to reach agreement with the Soviet Union was thoroughly welcome.

"A solution must be found to this, the gravest problem facing mankind,” Mr Holyoake said.