"Britain Indefensible In Atom War": Mass Migration Urged

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22823, 18 December 1948, Page 5

"Britain Indefensible In Atom War": Mass Migration Urged

(N.Z.P.A.—Reuter—Copyright.) (11.15 a.m.) CANBERRA, Dec. IS. Britain would he indefensible in an atomic war because slic would starve, said Dr. D. F. Martvu, who is chief of radio research for the Council for Scientific and In dust ri a 1 Rese are 1 1 . Dr. Martyn was chief of operational research for the three Australian services during the last war.

He recently returned from Europe, where lie attended a number of international scientific conferences. Dr. Martyn said: “Unless Britain reduces her population, her only hope of survival lies in peace." He urged mass emigration of 20,000,000 people from Britain to the Do minions and vast planning throughout the British Commonwealth to meet the threat of an atomic war in five to 10 years.

Dr. Martyn added: “The number of atom bombs that could be made in the foreseeable future could not cripple either Russia or the United States. In my opinion it will take Russia at least five years, and probably longer, to make enough atom bombs with which to carry out an atomic war on a large scale.

‘Russia may have one bomb sooner than that, but we should know about it as soon as she tries it out from the Western democracies’ atomic detectors.' The industrial areas in Russia and the United States are so dispersed that it would need an impossible number of bombs to put such industries out of action. Britain, on the other hand, would be indefensible in atomic warfare. Ports Could Be Knocked Out.

“She produces only about half of the food necessary to feed her population and is thus dependent on imports of food, as well as raw materials," said Dr. Martyn. “The ports through which these imports must pass are bottlenecks, being concentrated in a small area which could easily be knocked out.

“As Britain normally carries sufficient food stocks for a month only, her people would starve within a short period. “With Britain facing starvation and defeat in atomic warfare, her only hope of survival would be to reduce her population to the number she could feed herself. This would mean mass emigration of about 20,000,000 people to the Dominions.”

Dr. Martyn said the British Government appears to have no defence policy to meet the threat of atomic warfare and unless she reduces her population her only hope of survival lies in peace.

British Government officials refused to comment on Dr. Martyn’s statement that Britain would be indefensible in an atomic war.

The Defence Ministry spokesman, however, classed as “completely untrue" Dr. Martyn’s charge that Britain appeared to have no defence policy' to meet the threat of atomic warfare,

Dr. J. L. Michiels, editor of the Atomic Scientists News, thought that Dr. Martyn was a shade pessimistic. He added, however, that there was no doubt that Britain was more vulnerable than the United States or Russia because of her density of population and the congestion of ports through which food supplies must flow. He described Dr. Martyn’s estimate of five or 10 years as a somewhat short period for Russia to develop her atomic potential.