Too Much Hush-Hush
General Bradley has shown courage and common sense in publicly advocating such alterations to the Atomic Energy Act as would allow the American Government to authorise (if it felt inclined), the transmission of secret information about atomic weapons to senior allied commanders. As things stand, no officer in the forces of N.A.T.O., unless he is an American, is allowed to know anything about atomic weapons which has not been made available to the general public. As long as these weapons comprised only missiles designed for use against distant objectives, there was, perhaps, no particular point in anyone outside America knowing much more about them than the bare fact of their existence ; but now that they are being developed for tactical as well as for strategical uses it would seem essential that responsible commanders and (equally important) staff officers con- cerned with planning should have a rough idea. of the capabilities of these weapons and the scale on which they are likely to be available. The present situation is funda- mentally and unnecessarily Gilbertian, and it is greatly to be hoped that Washington will be influenced by General Bradley's sensible recommendation.
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