U.K. Nuclear Control Plan To Be Revised

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30814, 28 July 1965, Page 9

U.K. Nuclear Control Plan To Be Revised

(N.Z.P. A. -Reuter—Copyright) PARIS, July 26. Britain’s plan to stop the spread of nuclear weapons will be revised to meet the views of her North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partners before it goes before the Geneva disarmament conference.

This was disclosed in Paris tonight after a oneday special meeting of the N.A.T.O. Permanent Council gave a mixed reception to the nuclear non-dissemination treaty scheme. The British plan was explained to council members by Lord Chalfont, British Disarmament Minister. N.A.T.O. council sources said the four alliance members attending the Geneva conference Britain, the United States, Canada and Italy—would meet there to produce a revised draft. Their aim would be to satisfy the views of other N.A.T.O. members while leaving the plan attractive enough for the Soviet Union to consider. The general view at today’s N.A.T.O. meeting was that the Soviet Union would probably produce proposals of its own to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons in the session of the Geneva conference which resumes tomorrow. German Concern Germany is concerned, Germans said yesterday, that the non - dissemination treaty might prejudice its chances of later acquiring a part in the control of the West’s nuclear armour. N.A.T.O. council sources listed Allied views on the British scheme, voiced today, as: (1) The need for guarantees from non-nuclear powers

to persuade them to abandon the idea of having nuclear weapons of their own. Dele gates felt that this was espe cially important in the case of countries like Sweden. Israel, India, the United Arab Republic and others which were potentially nuclear countries, and had the indus trial and scientific capacity to make nuclear weapons. These countries would want very good assurances about their security before giving up the chance of having a bomb of their own, delegates said. (2) The need for effective verification and control, per-

haps by the International Atomic Energy Agency. (3) The importance of existing nuclear powers giving i lead in disarmament by negotiating some form of freeze” of nuclear arms, and the destruction of part of existing arms. Delegates felt that this could effectively be arranged only by the two biggest nuclear powers, the United States and the Soviet Union.