Warning to France

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32967, 13 July 1972, Page 15

Warning to France

Dr Eugene Carson Blake, the general secretary of the ' World Council of Churches, - has warned France that any i nuclear test in the atmosphere threatens to undo all ; the positive work towards i arms limitation and protec- ; tion of the environment ■ initiated at the Stockholm : environment conferences • according to advice received i in Wellington. In a telegram to President , Pompidou he stated: “Mr President, on behalf ■ of all humanity and especially those living in the ! South Pacific area, I address . this last-minute plea to you i to halt the proposed atomic : test in the Pacific. The hopes : raised by the success of the • Stockholm conference on i human environment will be [ seriously prejudiced if this , most destructive form of environmental pollution is con- ■ tinued. Argument that great ( Powers cannot forgo nuclear arms development is singu- ! larly dangerous at present ’ juncture when any nuclear . test in the atmosphere may [ seriously jeopardise first . positive steps towards limiting nuclear stockpiling. Public and parliamentary I opinion, particularly U.S.A., but also U.S.S.R., increasingly presses for limited test ban even if comprehensive test ban may still seem remote. At such a time any nuclear test in the atmosphere by any power may reverse present positive tendencies.”