SOVIET WANTS DATA ON BIG POWERS’ ATOMIC WEAPONS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22867, 10 February 1949, Page 5

SOVIET WANTS DATA ON BIG POWERS’ ATOMIC WEAPONS

(N.Z.P.A. —Reuter —Co i>y right.) (9 a.m.) NEW FORK, Feb. 9. Russia demanded today that the five big Powers give the United Nations a full report by March 1 on their military strength, including atomic weapons. The demand was laid before the Security Council by the Soviet DeputyForeign Minister, Mr. Jacob Malik. In a formal proposal, Russia also demanded:— 1. —That the Commission for Conventional Armaments draft a treaty for the prohibition of atomic weapons by June 1. 2. That the commission draft another treaty for atomic control byJune 1 to be effective on the same date as that on atomic weapons. 3. That the commission draw up a plan under which the five big Powers would reduce all armaments by one-third by March 1, 1950. Under the Soviet resolution the United States would be required to publish the number of atomic bombs it has on hand. The Soviet proposal said in its preamble that the council should take note of the increasing burden of arms and what it called an ever-growing propaganda for a new war and the creation of groups of countries headed by aggressive circles. Mr. Warren Austin, the chief United States delegate, made the charge that Russia was trying to revive a, proposal which already had been beaten in the General Assembly in in 1948. Mr. Austin asked: “Has the Soviet ever offered to tel! us the state of effectiveness of the armed forces of their great country? The United States has done so.” . Mr. Austin said the omnibus Soviet resolution contained all the familier ingredients ‘‘including everything we have had in the Security Council since it began.” The council adjourned till Thursday.