The Press FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1962. Nuclear Testing

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29749, 16 February 1962, Page 8

The Press FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1962. Nuclear Testing

Two events helped to shape the latest joint policy of the United States and Bri-

tain on nuclear weapons tests. The first was the Bermuda meeting of President Kennedy and Mr Macmillan on December 22, when they decided to prepare for atmospheric tests, if necessary, but to continue efforts for disarmament; the second was the final deadlock, after three years and three months, at the tripartite Geneva talks on a test ban. The Soviet Union has got its way in securing the transference of nuclear discussions to the much wider forum of the general disarmament conference scheduled to begin in Geneva on March 14. Until this conference actually opens, nobody can be certain of its character or status. Mr Khrushchev is reported to want a preliminary meeting of Heads of State; and there is another proposal for negotiating at the Foreign Minister level. Earlier disarmament negotiations have provided melancholy support for scepticism about the value of conferring with the Russians at all; and it is with this thought in mind that the current programme for closer American and British co-operation over nuclear tests should be appraised. On both sides of the Atlantic politicians are under considerable pressure from persons who oppose, on humanitarian or strategic grounds, the resumption of full-scale nuclear testing, and also from those who foresee defeat or even annihilation as the only alternative to Western military preparedness, including the refinefnent of nuclear weapons. An American and British decision to launch

a major series of atmospheric tests (such as those with which the Russians sabotaged the Geneva talks last year) must depend upon secret information that no security-conscious President or Prime Minister could contemplate publishing. For this reason emotional outbursts on atmospheric testing (which the United States and Britain have avoided since the start of the Geneva test ban talks) could endanger the strength of the Western alliance and its ability to negotiate successfully with the Russians.

The armaments race benefits neither Russia nor the West. It could have been ended long ago if the Russians had been less morbidly fearful of espionage and readier to co-oper-ate in an acceptable inspection system. Technological gains achieved through the Russians’ last series of more than 50 nuclear tests have probably been offset by Russia’s loss of prestige among the Afro-Asian countries. Western peoples are unlikely to be told how seriously their safety has been prejudiced by the improvement of Russian weapons; but certainly the Americans can make a better case than previously for intensifying their own research and resuming atmospheric tests. Roscoe Drummond recently summarised opinion in the United States as follows: “Of course “radioactive fall-out is a “ hazard, but most Ameri“cans will, I think, believe “that the hazard of letting “ ourselves fall behind in “deterrent strength can be “ a greater hazard than fall“out, particularly since the “Soviets had resumed test- “ ing in the air ”.