ATOMIC RACE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 287, 5 December 1945, Page 5

ATOMIC RACE

WHERE SOVIET STANDS GREAT ADVANTAGES HELD. Washington, Dec. 2. “If an atomic armaments race develops, Russia will produce her first atomic bombs in about three years, and will possibly accumulate them faster than the United States can,” said Dr. Irving Langmuir, associate research director tor th? General Electric Company, testifying before the Senate committee on atomic energy. The Russians, he said, had an advantage because they had a larger population which -could be regimented, a remarkable system of incentives, which was rapidly increasing the efficiency of their industrial production, no unemployment or strikes, and a deep appreciation of pure and applied science. They had already planned a far more extensive scientific programme than any contemplated in the United States, and moreover they had continued training scientists in wartime far more extensively than the United States had. Russia also had available the knowledge of German scientists and technicians, and ample resources of uranium. Dr. Langmuir proposed that Britain, Canada, and the United States should immediately consult with the Soviet to secure a tentative agreement based on the Truman-Attlee-Mackenzie King formula. He took the brightest view of the atomic age yet presented to the committee whenjhe stated that the new knowledge or nuclear reactions might shorten by 50 per cent., the time required to discover a cure for cancer, with a consequent saving of more fives than were lost in the recent He said mankind might, now expect r. series of great, discoveries in biology, chemistry and physics. “Our task is to find ways and means, rot Io harness scientists, but to harness the destructive elements which science may produce and never to allow them to be used against the world,” he said. “I believe that with good will we can do it. A way can bo found.”