Nuclear weapons

Press, 27 February 1981, Page 12

Nuclear weapons

Sir, — I suggest a different point of view about nuclear weapons from that of Peter Stocker (February 24). In 1973 I was on the New Zealand frigate sent to protest at nuclear weapon testing on Mururoa Atoll, and monitor radioactivity. One evening I said oyer ship’s TV that I was pleased to be there protesting — not at the traces of radioactivity spread from the tests, but because they helped develop weapons of mass murder. I still believe the same. Let us not base arguments against nuclear armaments on the small hazards from radioactivity from tests. The big reason for opposition is that, if used in the threatening world war, they would annihilate a large part of the human race, mostly through direct violence although the radioactive contamination would also be disastrous. The main need for a nuclear weapon-free Pacific zone arises, not from testing, but to resist our being dragged along with the big nations into their * nuclear war. — Yours, etc., JIM McCAHON. February 25, 1981.