BRITAIN HAS ATOMIC BOMB

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27266, 17 December 1949, Page 7

BRITAIN HAS ATOMIC BOMB

REPORT IN LONDON NEWSPAPER

American Scientists’ Belief Affirmed

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright

Rec. 11 p.m. NEW YORK, Dec. 15.' Mr Howard Blakeslee, science editor of the Associated Press, wrote today that a report in the Londpn Daily Mirror that Britain had an atomic bomb affirmed the belief held by American scientists.

Mr Blakeslee said: “To scientists, it was incredible that there could be any secrets of the structure of the atomic bomb kept from British officials. Sir John Cockcroft, who went to the United States to work on the atomic bomb, was the discoverer of the particle that split bomb atoms. Before him, Lord Rutherford gave the scientist world its first proof of what went on inside atoms that were emitting atomic energy.

“ When World War II broke out Dr George Pegram, of the Columbia University Physics Department, went to England to confer with British scientists about the possibilities of Germany making an atomic bomb. What the other American scientists learned then from the British scientists was shortly afterwards part of the evidence that stirred President Roosevelt to authorise the American atomic bomb project.

Mr Blakeslee said that at Bikini, before the present United States atomic law prohibited the exchange of information, a British scientist was one of the members of the American scientific staff. His identity was so secret that when Mr Blakeslee talked to reporters they were asked to omit his identity. Mr Blakeslee recalled that British scientists in large numbers were part of the staff at Los Alamos (New Mexico), which actually designed the bomb. Atomic Alliance Proposed American officials were seriously discussing a compromise atomic alliance under which the United States would make all the atomic bombs for the Western Powers and Britain would be free to develop new atomic weapons other than atomic bombs, and Britain did not want the current talks with the United States on atomic energy to V hamper British production of those new weapons if they developed as anticipated, Mr Blakeslee said. He understood that Britain was opposed to any agreement that would first, leave her without access to some atomic bombs, secondly, give the United States the monopoly of the development of new atomic weapons, and thirdly, maintain atomic information.

Officials in London and Washington were consequently exploring a compromise of allocating some atomic bombs to Britain and Canada to be stored in Canada, and of widening the atomic agreement so that the British would proceed with their plans to manufacture some other atomic weapons.

The correspondent said the ability of the British and American Governments to get consent in Parliament and Congress for such a compromise probably would determine whether Britain, the United States and Canada created an atomic alliance or joined the atomic race separately. ... Mr Blakeslee said that Britain had made it clear that she could not accept the present atomic agreement with the United States as a permanent basis of ,her atomic policy. He added that the future of atomic conversations apparently rested largely on how the United States Government defined the terms of the suggested compromise and on the reaction of Congress.