A Spectator's Notebook
THE FUSS BEING CREATED about the Soviet launching of the first arti- ficial satellite is tiresome from several points of view. Leaving aside such obvious bits of lunacy as• American fears that President
Eisenhower's missed putt on the etehth tee at Augusta, Ga., will now be observed bY hostile eyes (or at least hostile televiewers), the
Most irritating phenomenon it has brought in its wake is the brainless crowing of the surviving fellow travellers and party members. I notice that the Dean of Canterbury was first in The Times with a resounding cock-a-doodle-doo. It ls no use, I suppose, repeating the simple truth that to admire the Soviet Union for launching a satel- i_ite is exactly on the same level as admiring mussolini's Italy for the punctuality of its trains. After all, this will not be the first time that a totalitarian State has been ahead of the democ- racies in rocket research, and technological advance is no excuse for political tyranny. How- ever, these annoyances pale into insignificance carapared with the frightful prospect of a future Ill Which space travel becomes one of the major factors in national prestige. Already, if American Public opinion is to have any say in the matter, I irnagine that large quantities of blood and gold are going to be poured into ensuring that the Stars and Stripes is the first flag on the moon. hen I suppose, it will be Mars's turn, and the red planet is presumably predestined to have the red flag raised over it. The complications will e°me when Russian and American spacemen fleet at some galactic Fashoda, and it is rather .depressing to think of the limitless number of new 'ron curtains that might come into existence. The 1Y redeeming feature would be if President tisenhower and Marshal Zhukov were to encounter a Thing who disliked Communism and Capitalism equally. Then we should see a renewal of wartime camaraderie at the monster's expense.
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