DEVELOPMENT OF BOMB

Southland Times, Issue 25746, 9 August 1945, Page 5

DEVELOPMENT OF BOMB

PART PLAYED BY NEW ZEALAND

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 7. The fact that New Zealand had played a part in the development of the atomic bomb was revealed by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, in the House of Representatives this evening. Mr Fraser recalled a recent warning by General Smuts that science, chemistry, and engineering had so progressed that the power for destruction seen during this war merely placed mankind on the threshold of far greater frightfulness to come. Mr Fraser said that he, like others closely associated with the war, had known of and taken part in discussions on the possibility of using atomic energy, but he had not expected the dramatic story of its application which .President Truman had given the world oday. He said that Dr E. Marsden, of

the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, had taken part in discussions leading to the development of i this mighty new weapon, while a young I New Zealand scientist had participated lin the United Nations’ work that had gone into it. Mr Fraser said this terrible power, if wielded without restriction, might be used for the destruction of mankind. One could understand the United Nations’ leaders hesitating to use this mighty destructive instrument against the Japanese without warning. He pictured what might have happened if the Germans had developed it in time to use against Britain, and said the immense powers now in the hands of the nations carried corresponding responsibilities if the whole world were not to be overwhelmed in a future devastating conflict.

ATOMIC BOMBING OF JAPAN Strong Opposition By Vatican LONDON, August 7. The Vatican is absolutely opposed to the atomic bombing of Japan, according to an authoritative Vatican source quoted by the correspondent in Rome of the Associated Press of America. “The Roman Catholic Church has equal pity for all those subjected to atomic bombing, and cannot make any distinction between victims,” says the correspondent’s informant. “The discovery of the atomic bomb caused an unfavourable impression in the Vatican because the use of atomic bombs might be the first link in a chain of unpredictable violence,” the Vatican Press bulletin says. “The atomic bomb revelations made a deep impression in the Vatican City, not so much for the use already made of the new death instrument as for the sinister shadow that the discovery of this weapon casts over the future of humanity.” The Rev. A. D. Belden, on behalf of the Christianity Calling Council, has sent the following message to Mr Attlee and President Truman: “Unparalleled terrorism disgraces the United Nations. I beg you to secure a veto on the use of the atomic bomb.”