RAW MATERIAL BEING MINED DAY AND NIGHT

Northern Advocate, 24 September 1949, Page 5

RAW MATERIAL BEING MINED DAY AND NIGHT

LONDON, Fri. (11.30 a.m.). —Comments on the atomic explosion in Russia have ranged from gladness to surprise. It is reported that Russia has uranium ore, basis of atomic energy, in quantities comparable with that available to the United States and Britain. Russia is also reported to have seized German atomic scientists for work in Russia and to have sent thousands of into the uranium mines.

Within a short time of the official announcement that an atomic explosion had' occurred in Russia, London evening newspapers had special editions on the streets announcing the ‘news in streamer headlines. Reuters says some members of the House of Commons .may request extension 'of Parliament’s three-day sitting next week so there can be a second debate on the implications of the Government’s statement on the atomic explosion in Russia. It is doubtful whether the Government would desire such a debate at this stage. The Dean of Canterbury (Dr Hewlett Johnson), who was in Moscow recently, said he would not be surprised to learn that such an explosion had occurred. . t WILL PREVENT WAR? "I know the ability of Russian scientists,"'he said. “I also know that they are more interested in making atomic power for industrial purposes than in making explosions to kill people.? Reuters Berlin correspondent says Western Berlin was: alarmed but not surprised.by the announcement Official British and other reports have frequently . spoken, of tens of thousands of German miners at Aue, on the Czechoslovak frontier, working day and night to extract uranium ore. Dr Otto Hahn, Nobel Prize physicist and pioneer discoverer of atomic fission, said at Bonn, when told of the Russian explosion: "Well, I am glad. If both sides have the bomb there will be no war. “It will be just as with gas in the last war—neither side used it, as they knew others had it, too.” SECRETS NOT SHARED The official Soviet news agency Tass, in a Washington report it distributed today in London, said that the ThreePower Washington negotiations on atomic energy “attest to the grave nature of Anglo-American contradictions in the field of atomic energy.” Tass said the American Government had failed to abide by the terms of the Anglo-Canadian-American agreement of January, 1948, providing for the exchange of atomic information, “thus arousing the great discontent of the British.” The latter, in turn, not only stopped forwarding information to the Americans on their scientists’ research, but even threatened to demand 50 per cent- of .uranium ore produced -in the Belgian Congo, the bulk of which was formerly exported to the United States and was a basic raw material for atomic production. The United Press Brussels correspondent quotes Belgian Congo uranium experts as saying that they believe the Russians have vast resources of atomic ore comparable to those available in the Belgian Congo. Allied officials in Berlin say that

the Russians apprehended at least 200 German atomic scientists and took them eastward to further Russia’s feverish efforts to harness atomic energy. The Russians also have converted uranium mines in Eastern Germany into a Soviet trust and are reported to have taken control of uranium mines in Czechoslovakia. In Eastern Germany the Russians have recruited at least 25.000 workers, many of them women, for labour in the Saxony uranium mines near the Czech border. All morning London newspapers gave editorial prominence to the announcement of the Russian explosion. The Times said it would be useless to pretend that the knowledge that Russia now has at least a prototype of the atomic bomb is not a shock, nor that it will make no change in the balance of world power. EFFECT ON RUSSIAN POLICY. It is impossible to make any accurate forecast of the effect of this discovery on Russian policy. It. may be that the Soviet will be less nervous of American power and confidence, and therefore more ready to take risks. On the other hand, it may well be that the new assurance will make Russia less hysterical in her suspicions and more open to reasonable propo-' sals. There is no reason for the Western powers to change their policy. Their desire has always been to live in peace with the Soviet Union if the Soviet Union will live in peace with them. The Daily Mail said the crash of the Russian bomb will come as a far greater shock than the almost offhand announcement of the crash of the British pound. Visions of a new and more terrible war will be conjured up. There is widespread opinion that peace has only been maintained by the fact that the Americans possessed the atom bomb and the Russians did not. UNDERSTANDABLY LESS LIKELY The Mail add£: “It is odds-on that the Russians have the atom bomb, but it does not necessarily mean that, now two giants are on equal terms, a clash must follow. “The problem is that Russia, who refused to put atomic powers under international control when she had not got the bomb is even less likely to accept it now that she has.” The first detailed examination of the impact on the Western nations of the Russians’ knowledge of atomic fission will take place when the Atlantic Pact Ministers meet in Washington next month. The British Defence Minister, Mr A. V. Alexander, is leaving for the United States next Thursday to attend the first meeting of the Atlantic Defence Council.