ATOMIC ENERGY

Evening Star, Issue 25619, 20 October 1945, Page 7

ATOMIC ENERGY

RETENTION OF SECRET BY AMERICA VIGOROUS ATTACK ON PROPOSAL WOULD LEAD TO SUSPICION AND FEAR WASffINGTON, October 19. The Administration's Bill for the nationalising of atomic energy came under vigorous attack from a group of scientists who were ""closely associated with the developing of the atomic •bomb, says the ' New York Times' correspondent. The Bill's chances of; passage in its present form have beeo. materially lessened! The critics denounced the Bill as . tending to " freeze " rather than promote scientific experimenta- - tion, and as being nationalistic, justifying other countries in taking an attitude of suspicion and fear of the United States. Dr Harold Urey, one of the pioneers of the atomic bomb, with the approval of four colleagues, said the Bill would create a potential dictator of science, and would server notice upon the world that the United States was opening an armaments race. Dr H. J. Curtis, another atomic developer, said: " The whole tone of the Bill is such that if I were a scientist of some other country I would assuredly think that the United States was getting ready to bomb us ; in a big way. Any foreign country is going to read into the Bill that we are essentially an aggressor nation." General H. H. Arnold, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army Air Forces, told a Senate sub-commit-tee that at the present stage, of development the only defence against the atomic bomb was to stop it before it started out. "It is possible now to take an atomic bomb and fit it with wings and also a television head, making it a guided missile. The only way to ' launch it over 300 miles from the target is bv aircraft;" he said. I do not think we have- anything at present to prevent such a missile com- . ing against a taTget while it is beyond the range of anti-aircraft guns. - :