‘Horrors Beyond Control Of Mankind’

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32031, 4 July 1969, Page 11

‘Horrors Beyond Control Of Mankind’

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) 1 NEW YORK, July 3. A group of 14 international experts said yesterday that use of biological and chemical weapons in any future war would open the door to horrors beyond control of mankind. The grim evaluation was contained in a report prepared at the request of the Secretary-General (U Thant) in compliance with a General Assembly resolution. The experts summed up their conclusions in these words: “Were these weapons ever to be used on a large scale in war, no-one could predict how enduring the effects would be, and how they would affect the struc-

ture of society and the environment in which we live. “This overriding danger would apply as much to the country which initiated the use of these weapons as to the one which had been attacked, regardless of what protective measures it might have taken in parallel with its development of an offensive capability . . . civilians would be even more vulnerable than the military.” U Thant’s immediate reaction was to urge the 126 United Nations member countries to take three-fold action. Call upon all countries to reach agreement to halt the development, production and stockpiling of all chemical and biological agents for purpose of war, and to eliminate them from the arsenal of weapons.

Renew the appeal to all countries to accede to the 1925 Geneva Convention against use of poison gases and bacteriological methods of warfare. Make clear that the prohibition in the Geneva, protocol applies to use in war of all chemical or biological agents, including tear-gas and other harassing agents. The United States has signed but not ratified the Geneva Convention, but has pledged frequently to abide by it. The Soviet Union is among the countries which have ratified it. The 116-page report was prepared by the experts in what was described as arduous and exhaustive meetings in January in Geneva and in April at United Nations

Headquarters in New York. It will be presented to the U.N. Disarmament Committee, which is due to reconvene in Geneva today, to the General Assembly, the Security Council and Governments of U.N. member States. Among the additional findings of the experts: The potential for developing an armoury of chemical and biological weapons has grown considerably in recent years, not only, in terms of the number of agents, but also in their toxicity and the diversity Of their effects. At one extreme, chemical agents exist and are being developed for use in the control of civil disorders, while others have been developed to increase the production of agriculture.

“But even though these substances may be less toxic

than most other chemical agents,” the report said, “their ill-considered civil use, or use for military purposes, could turn out to be highly dangerous.” The experts concluded also that chemical and biological weapons were not a cheap substitute for other kinds of weapons, but the danger existed that even a developing country could acquire an arsenal of such weapons if it pursued such a course.

One cost estimate compared the cost of a nuclear weapon of one megaton with 15 tons of a nerve agent, considered a chemical weapon, and 10 tons of biological weapons.

The multi-year investment was placed at between ssooom and slo,ooom for the nuclear weapons, between slooom

and ssooom each for the other two' types of weapons. The experts declared that prospects for disarmament and peace would brighten significantly if chemical and biological weapons were removed from arsenals.

They expressed hope that their report “will contribute to public awareness of the profoundly dangerous results if these weapons were ever used, and that an aroused public will demand and receive assurances that Governments are working for the earliest effective elimination of chemcial and biological weapons." The experts came from! Hungary, the Netherlands, | the United States, India,' Czechoslovakia, Japan, France, Canada, the Soviet Union, Mexico. Sweden, Ethiopia, Poland and Britain.