“FORCE FOR PEACE”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21801, 25 August 1945, Page 5

“FORCE FOR PEACE”

SCIENTIST’S DEFENCE PEACETIME USE REMOTE LONDON, Aug. 23. Sir George Thomson, head of the British scientists who worked on the production of the atomic bomb, said that he could not see the atomic force being used in motors or aeroplanes for about a century. Sir George Thomson added that the moralists who were proclaiming against wickedness of the bomb’s use were wrong. It was much better that the atomic bomb should have been used and its power then shown, than that it should have been developed by various Governments in competition and made secretly without any knowing whether a rival was on the point of success or if the weapon really had power expected from it or not. It was at least known what to expect and the knowledge would be the greatest force for peace and sanity. He did not agree that these advantages could be possessed if the scientists had refused to develop it. They pressed on with desperate energy to develop their knowledge, the object being to finish off the Japanese war. Except for local radio activity effects the atomic bomb is completely harmless until the moment of detonation, says the New York Herald-Tribune in an editorial. There would seem to be no way in which a defender could explode them prematurely. There was no technical reason why the United States should not manufacture and store enough of them to blow half the world s cities to bits at a few hours’ notice. Peaceable uses for the new power were less immediately promising. There was no present prospect of chaining and utilising the energy released by the bomb.