NUCLEAR TEST BAN APPEAL

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29799, 16 April 1962, Page 13

NUCLEAR TEST BAN APPEAL

Khrushchev Not Impressed (N ZJP.A .-Reuter--Copyright) MOSCOW, April 14. Mr Khrushchev today declared his readiness to go anywhere at any time to sign an agreement on general disarmament, but rejected last Tuesday’s British-American appeal for international control of a nuclear test ban. Mr Khrushchev’s sharply-worded message was addressed to the British Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan) who sent him a personal letter of two paragraphs to accompany the joint appeal. The Soviet leader’s long reply clearly stated that he believed Western demands for control meant letting North Atlantic Treaty Organisation spies on to Soviet territory.

The Western Powers, he said, had presented Russia with something like an ultimatum —either let in spies, or the United States will resume testing. This kind of tone was used only in speaking to a defeated country. Mr Khrushchev said.

Western preparation for tests compelled the Soviet Union also to prepare and hold tests of its own. This would apply in the future too, to defend Socialist countries against “aggressive forces.”

A section of the reply was devoted to Berlin and Germany, and Mr Khrushchev again raised the question of a German peace treaty and the removal of Western troops from the city. The Western Powers, he said, were thinking of establishing a bridgehead against communism in West Berljn against the Soviet Union and the Socialist countries.

He also repeated Soviet proposals for a liquidation of military blocs and the withdrawal of foreign bases. In Geneva yesterday, Britain and the United States rejected neutralist suggestions for a watering-down of their international control de. rnands in a nuclear weapons test ban The Western stand was made clear by the United States Ambassador (Mr Arthur Dean) at a deadlocked meeting of the three-Power sub-committee of the 17-nation disarmament conference, the Associated Press said. Mr Dean's statement came after Russia had attempted to picture Britain and America as flying in the face of world public opinion by refusing to accept an unpoliced moratorium on tests, the new’s agency said.

Mr Dean said the United States still sought complete, scientifically justified policing arrangements written into a test ban treaty.

This would mean about 180 international control posts scattered around the world and an adequate number of on-site inspections each year. The news agency said Mr Dean yesterday studied the compromise ideas put forward by the eight middlegroup nations He noted that they all called for a more skimpy control system than that recommended by the scientists from East and West in 1958 and 1959.

The British Minister of State (Mr J. B. Godber) said Britain was "desperately anxious to reach a test ban agreement.” He stressed, however, that the international control idea must be observed. Reuter quoted an authoritative Western source as saying the Soviet delegate (Mr Semyon Tsarapkin) told the meeting the West wanted freedom of action to test

nuclear weapons and had gone on to prepare tests in the atmosphere. Russia was willing to take the risk and accept the Indian proposal for a moratorium at tests during the disarmament talks, he said Reuter said the neutral nations were preparing to submit new compromise proposals, probably to Monday’s full conference.