THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 12, 1947. " Russia And The Atomic Bomb

Northern Advocate, 12 November 1947, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 12, 1947. " Russia And The Atomic Bomb

A few weeks ago M. Molotov told the world that Russia possessed the secret of the atomic bomb, a secret hitherto believed to have been the exclusive property of the United States.

Following upon this announcement comes another disturbing report, printed today, to the effect that Russia exploded her first test atomic bomb on June 15 of this year.

The explosion was staged, according to the Moscow correspondent of the Paris newspaper L’lntransigeant, in an isolated area of Siberia in the presence of .280 Soviet atom specialists and a number of Government officials.

Is this report to be believed? Who can say in face of the fact that an iron curtain shuts from the outside world all that takes place in Russia. The report, at any rate, should impress upon the Soviet the disservice which its isolationist policy inflicts upon itself no less than the world at large, for there can be no question that if foreign observers had been invited to witness the explosion of the bomb, and the explosion had demonstrated the truth of the Soviet’s claim to have secured the secret of the awful weapon, the relationships of Russia and the other great powers would undergo reorientation. As matters stand at the moment, the reported Moscow message to the Paris newspaper must tend to increase the suspicion which has been a prime factor in the fomenting of anti-Russian feeling, the nations being left in uncertainty as to whether a bomb was actually exploded, whether the explosion was successful, or whether the report was circulated for propaganda purposes alone.

It has been recognised from the outset that the secret of the atomic bomb would eventually be unearthed by Russia, whose gifted scientists (unfortunately aided by dishonourable men associated with the Allied investigation and manufacture of the bomb) have been diligently searching for the means by which atomic energy may be detonated. The report that Russia is already in a position to manufacture atomic weapons is at worst only an anticipation of what could not be long deferred.

The so-called secrets are accessible to all nations who can command the services of cofnpetent . scientists, whom Russia does not lack, and will devote sufficient resources to pursuit of research along lines that are expensive but of which the general

direction is well known to the scientific world.

Professor Einstein, for example, was recently quoted as saying that “there is no secret and there is no defence.”

The reported possession of atomic weapons will not make the Russians feel any safer, but it will relieve them of the sense of an inferior position in negotiation, which has no doubt contributed not a little to their uncompromising attitude. Will the possesion of the secret buttress Russia’s suggestion to the United Nations that disarmament should include the international outlawing of the atomic bomb as an implement of warfare? Or will it tempt nations which possess the secret of the bomb to hasten a trial of strength which would constitute international suicide? There is little doubt that Soviet fear of the unique weapon possessed, so far as was known, only by the United States, was the main factor underlying the, persistent deadlock of last Winter’S discussions by the Atomic Energy Commission and its committees, and it seemed to emerge again in September, when the committee met to render its second report to the Security Council, and M. Gromyko denounced the majority plan of international inspection and control as “a new instrument of American expansionism.” If the report printed today be true, M. Gromyko must have been aware of Russia’s possession of the bomb secret, a fact which must necessarily, though perhaps undeservedly, cast suspicion upon the sincerity of M. Molotov and M. Gromyko when they urged international disarmament. However that may be, there is weight in a recent contention of The Times that the best chance of overcoming the military obstacle to the use of atomic energy for civil purposes is that the rival nations shall find the way of cooperating in the peaceful development of atomic power.

The first step is to pay more attention to the positive function of the proposed international authority as guide in the advancement of atomic industries and less to its negative function in checking the misuse of the new force.

If this more constructive attitude can be fostered, the hope of the Lilienthal Committee may be realised: that the agents of the authority will be welcomed by every nation as friendly advisers in touch with the latest scientific knowledge rather than distrusted as spies.