ATOMIC ENERGY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 269, 14 November 1945, Page 5

ATOMIC ENERGY

SHARING THE SECRET MR. ATTLEE’S OPINIONS NO CHANCE OF OUTLAWING THE BOMB Recd. 9.20 p.m. Washington, Nov. 13. The British Prime Minister, Mr. Attlee, has rested the British ease for sharing the atomic secret on the contention that the United Nations’ Organisation must be taken seriously, or not at all, and that atomic bomb control by the Security Council is a necessary prelude to wholehearted cooperation by the Soviet for world peace, says the “New York Times” correspondent. This view, with at least the tacit approval of the Prime Minister o£ Canada, Mr. Mackenzie King, was submitted during the cruise on the Potomac River, and at the White House. Mr, Attlee is understood to have swept aside President Truman’s hope that the bomb could be outlawed.

Though there is an official blackout on the discussions British sources close to Mr. Attlee want his position understood. It is believed he argued against outlawing the bomb on, the grounds that when any nation is in an extremity, and is fighting for its existence, all the rules go overboard. The British contention is that gas was not used in the last war on military, not moral grounds, and on a promise that no belligerent would use it if the other refrained. British opinion is that similar military considerations, backed by a strong United NationsOrganisation in a moral and military sense, could alone prevent the future use of the atomic bomb.

His arguments are said to embrace: Firstly, that the philosophy of the United Nations’ Organisation Charter has been altered bv the discovery o£ the new weapon, and it was the settled British policy that the United Nations’ Orgnisation must be strengthened by receiving accepted responsibilities, without which it cannot be effective. Secondly, the discoveries of the great military potential do not cease with the atomic bomb; hence the necessity for pooling the scientific discoveries of military potential. Thirdly, before any real headway oan be made towards lasting peace it will be necessary to dissipate Soviet fears and suspicions, fostered by British American and Canadian control of the bomb secret, and this dissipation can most effectively be accomplished by turning the secret over to the Security, Council, or a joint statement of willingness to do so. Fourthly, it would then be up to Russia to give unmistakable evidence of its intention to co-operate wholeheartedly with the United Nations' Organisation, which evidence can be furnished by political action calculated to reduce British and American suspicions of the Soviet, and probably carried out through the Council of Foreign Ministers.