BIG FACTOR IN WAR

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23282, 18 August 1945, Page 5

BIG FACTOR IN WAR

Use Of Atomic Bomb Claim By Mr Churchill By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright LONDON, August 15. “It is to the atomic bomb more than any other factor that we must ascribe the sudden and swift ending of the war,’’ said Mr Churchill, speaking in the House of Commons in the Address-in-Reply. Mr Churchill said the news of the trial of the atomic bomb in the Mexican Desert reached Potsdam on July 17. “Success beyond all dreams crowned this sombre, magnificent venture of our American Allies. We possessed powers which were irresistible. President Truman and myself took the decision to use the atomic bomb at Potsdam, and approved of military plans to unchain the dread, pent-up force. “From that moment thq. outlook on the future was transformed. President Truman informed Generalissimo Stalin that we contemplated using an explosive of incomparable power against the Japanese, and added that before using the bomb, it would be necessary to send an ultimatum to the Japanese. “No doubt the assurances we gave Japan about her future after unconditional surrender were generous to a point when we remember the cruel and treacherous nature of their utterly unprovoked attacks against Britain and America, and they must be considered magnanimous in a high degree. We felt that in view of the near and fearful changes of war power about to be employed that inducement to surrender should be put before them. We owed this to our conscience before usirn the awful weapon.” Mr Churchill said that he could not agree with those who felt that the atomic bomb should never be used. "Six years of total war had convinced most 'people that had the Germans or Japanese discovered the weapon they would have used it to our complete destruction with the utmost alacrity. Future generations will judge our dire decision. I believe if they find themselves dwelling in a happier world from which war has been banished that they will not condemn those who struggled for their benefit amid the horrors and miseries of this grim and ferocious epoch.” Common Safety Mr Churchill expressed entire agreement with President Truman's view that the secret should not be turned over at present to any other country. “This is not a desire for arbitrary power, but for the common safety of the world. Nothing can stay the research experiments of any country, and no doubt research is proceeding in many places but the construction of the immense plants necessary to transform the theory into action” cannot be provided in every country. For this and other reasons the United Nations stand on the summit of the world. I rejoice that this is so. Let them act to the level of their power and responsibility. “So far as we know there will be perhaps three or four years before their great progress can be overtaken. We in these three or four years must remodel our relations with other men in such a way that they will not wish or dare fall upon each other for the sake of vulgar outdated ambition or passionate differences in ideologies, and that the international supreme authority may give peace on earth and justice among men.”

Mr Churchill denied that the use of the atomic bomb hastened Russia’s entry into the Far Eastern

war. “My understanding with Generalissimo Stalin for a con-

siderable time past had been that Russia would declare war on Japan within three months of the German surrender. The delay was needed in order to move over the trans-Siberian railway large reinforcements to convert the Russian Manchurian Army from a defensive army to an offensive army.”