AUSTRALIAN SCIENTIST GIVES BRITAIN LITTLE CHANCE IN ATOMIC WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26959, 20 December 1948, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN SCIENTIST GIVES BRITAIN LITTLE CHANCE IN ATOMIC WAR

NZPA—Copyright CANBERRA, Dec. 18. Britain would be indefensible in an atomic war because she would starve, said Dr D. F. Martyn, who is chief of radio research for the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Dr Martyn was chief of operational research for the three Australian services during the last war. He has recently returned from Europe, where he attended a number of international scientific conferences. “ Unless Britain reduces her population, her only hope of survival lies in peace,” he said. He urged the mass emigration of 20,000,000 people from Britain to the dominions, and vast planning throughout the British Commonwealth to meet the threat of an atomic war in five to ten years. “The number of atom bombs that could be made in the foreseeable future could not cripple either Russia or the United States,” he said. “In my opinion, it will take Russia at least five years, and possibly 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. “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. “ She produces only about half of the food necessary to feed her popula-

tion, and is thus dependent on imports of food as well as raw materials. 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 a number she could feed herself. This would mean the mass emigration of about 20,000,000 people to the dominions.” Dr Martyn said the British Government appeared to have no defence polic’y to meet the threat of atomic warfare, and unless she reduced her population her only hope of survival lay in peace. London Reaction Government officials in London refused to comment on Dr Martyn’s statement in Canberra that Britain would be indefensible in an atomic war, says a London message. A Defence Ministry spokesman, however, classed as “ completely untrue ’’ Dr Martyn’s charge that Britain appeared to have no defence policy to meet an atomic warfare threat. Dr J. L. Michiels, editor of 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 congestion of ports through which food supplies must flow. He described Dr Martyn’s estimate of five or ten years as a somewhat short period for Russia to develop her atomic potential.