IMPLICATIONS OF BOMB

Southland Times, Issue 25747, 10 August 1945, Page 5

IMPLICATIONS OF BOMB

PUBLIC IMAGINATION CAPTURED (Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, August 8. The implications of the atomic bomb continue to hold the public attention, and are being fostered by every newspaper publishing long articles about the bomb itself and atomic energy, together with every word that is available about the actual attack and its effects on Hiroshima. Tlie name of Lord Rutherford is being recalled and several references have been made to him. Two newspapers have devoted articles to him and his work.

At first there was more speculation about the bomb itself than on its effect on the war against Japan, but now more interest is being taken in how soon the Japanese will surrender. All leading articles are devoted to the theme that man must control this new discovery or civilization will perish. For instance, The Times says: “Beyond all doubt, unless atomic power is turned to serve the aims of peace it can speedily make an end of civilized life on this earth. It will not serve those aims through a mere dissemination of the knowledge that a renewal of war now means universal destruction and collapse. WAR BECOMING SUICIDAL “Reason will tell mankind that war is becoming, with certainty, suicidal, but reason will be of no more avail than the appeal to fear. Humanity must be able to call upon deeper convictions. All that can directly be expected because of the existence of this new and terrifying power, is a more lively sense among statesmen, and the peoples to whom they are answerable, of the weight of responsibility of choosing between peace and war. “This is to say that so terrible a power must be brought and kept under responsible control. It cannot be segregated or specialized under any control distinct from the control of war itself.” Speculations on the implications of the atomic bomb are ranging over an unlimited field, and people’s imaginations are being stirred to such an extent that scores of Londoners have been telephoning the South Kensington Science Museum asking: Will the atomic bomb put the stars and the moon out of their courses; will new comets start colliding with the earth, and will the weather and the temperature all over the earth be affected? The answer given was reassuring: that there was no fear of .any of these things happening. In an article in The Daily Mail, Major-General J. F. C. Fuller declares that armies, navies and air forces are finished, and he asks: “If the aeroplane can be motored by a rocket, then why not a ship as great as the Queen Mary, which could fly through the air and into pure space?” Fed on thoughts like these, the public is becoming almost atomic drugged. The Daily Express suggests that there is an immediate possibility of creating artificial weather by firing special shells into the upper atmosphere to form vast regions of high and low pressure, which might vary the weather as desired. The belt of high pressure thus formed would be the equivalent of an anti-cyclone and would result in a period of settled and fine weather. The thickest icefields could be broken up to allow the passage of shipping through polar regions. Vast mineral deposits, as yet untapped, such as iron or copper, manganese and nickel, would then be brought within man’s reach.

The article also suggests that if atomic energy can be controlled, it should replace coal, water and oil as sources of power, but adds that at present it is a remote prospect that anyone over the age of 25 will see this new power in anything like full-scale operations. The opinion is expressed that, for the present, the British and American Governments will keep a close control of the secrets of the atomic bomb, but that, possibly, as part of the peace settlement, they will call an international conference to discuss measures for supervision. It is felt that its potentialities for good or evil are so great that strict international control is essential.