'No neutron bomb decision’

Press, 29 June 1983, Page 5

'No neutron bomb decision’

NZPA-Reuter Paris President Francois Mitterrand said yesterday that France was ready to produce a neutron warhead but no decision had yet been taken. Mr Mitterrand was clarifying France’s position on the enhanced radiation weapon after a West German magazine report containing remarks by his Defence Minister, Mr Charles Hernu. “France holds itself in a position to be able to make it when the decision is taken by me, that is, the head of State,” Mr Mitterrand said. “I remain master of the decision.” He said there was no reason to “fix one’s fantasies” on the neutron weapon but a decision to produce it

would imply a certain number of tactical and political consequences. Mr Hernu announced last November that France had tested the weapon, which produces relatively little blast but intense radiation, at its Mururoa test site in the South Pacific. Mr Hernu’s statements quoted by "Der Spiegel" last week, were taken by some commentators to ' imply more recent tests. The official Soviet news agency, Tass, yesterday attacked the French development of the neutron bomb and suggested that Paris wanted to bring in West German financial support for France's arms build-up. The Tass article reflected increased Kremlin concern over an apparent closing of

ranks with N.A.T.O. after repeated French declarations that its forces were closely linked to the alliance's defence structure. Tass said France was likely to include neutron bombs among the armaments of a rapid deployment force being built up along the lines of the United States force. “This neutron bomb may be first found among the arms of that interventionist force.” Tass said. Using a common way of expressing its own views obliquely, the Soviet agency said Western observers were wondering if Paris was sharing its plans with the West German news media because it wanted to involve West Germany’s "in-

dustrial-financial potential in the deployment of new. ever more lethal weapons."