M. Vyshinsky on Atomic Control
To discover any justification for hope in M. Vyshinsky's latest speeches on the control of atomic energy it is first of all necessary to divorce manner from content. His statement last Saturday to the political committee of the General Assembly that inspectors "can come into our house, smell, taste, touch and feel the atomic materials " and prescribe rules for "good faith, squared, cubed, carried to the tenth degree or the• nth degree " merely appropriated terms of mock precision to express contempt. The tone of this speech and of that in which on Monday he introduced more general proposals for a condemnation of war preparations was angry, abusive and bellicose. The content was superficially co-operative. But there was nothing to suggest any alteration of the earlier Russian sug- gestion that control of atomic energy and prohibition of atomic weapons must come into operation simultaneously. There was no assurance that inspection would be free and complete. There was 1 deliberate repetition of the refusal to accept international control, as distinct from inspection. The phrase " You can come into our house," coming from a Russian official, might be a straw to be clutched at, and the control of atomic energy is • such a crucial subject that even straws cannot be ignored. But after many months of useless discussion of unsatisfactory Russian alternatives to the proposals for effective control accepted by the great majority of members of the United Nations—months which have been employed in the U.S.S.R. in the production of an atomic bomb—we are worse off than ever. M. Vyshinsky's characteristic performance, in which specious and tricky proposals for a peaceful settlement are delivered on a torrent of slanderous accusations, has been repeated— as Mr. Warren Austin pointed out—in four successive assemblies. It could be repeated indefinitely, and it will hardly be stopped by counter-arguments at Lake Success. It is also doubtful whether the orders for such time-wasting devices can be cut off at their source, in the Kremlin, but that, even now, is still the best point at which to try.
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