The Press WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1963. U.S. Underground Testing Suspended

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30043, 30 January 1963, Page 10

The Press WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1963. U.S. Underground Testing Suspended

President Kennedy’s suspension of underground nuclear tests by the United States is a statesmanlike gesture that should foster understanding among members of the “ nuclear club ”, In recent weeks relations between Russia and the United States and Britain appear to have improved surprisingly; however, there is yet time for Mr Khrushchev to show that his concessions on nuclear disarmament are counterbalanced by fresh, unacceptable demands on other international issues, for instance Berlin. In the meantime, courtesy and common sense dictate that Soviet overtures should be received at face value, and that Western good faith should be manifested in decisions such as Mr Kennedy’s suspension of underground tests. Since Mr Khrushchev's change of front on an inspection system to enforce a nuclear test ban, the drafting of a treaty has resolved itself into straightforward

bargaining on the number of inspections necessary, rather than on matters of principle. The full background to this encouraging development is unlikely ever to be known publicly; but it can scarcely have

been coincidental that Mr 1 Khrushchev’s inspection an--1 nouncement was published i simultaneously with news ■ about the withdrawal of American land-based mis- . files from two N.A.T.O. i countries, Italy and Turkey, i Washington has tried to convince everybody that 1 the withdrawals mean merely a technical adjustment of defences, leading to the substitution of sub-marine-based Polaris missiles for obsolete landbased weapons. Nevertheless, the psychological effect of this breaking of the “ring of American bases” to which Soviet propagandists have constantly referred will be extensive in Eastern Europe, and must make the prospect of disarmament appear less risky. Two factors also contribute to the desire for a nuclear rapprochement between the United States and Russia: first, uncertainty about President de Gaulle’s intentions*, and, second, the possible imminence of nuclear weapon testing by the Chinese Communists. In the cultivation of Russian friendship with the West, gesture must be matched by gesture. President Kennedy seems fully cognisant of this need.