RUSSIA AND ATOMIC ENERGY
SIR,—May I suggest that your interpretation of Mr. Molotov's recent reference to atomic energy as a reply to General Arnold's prediction of United States atomic armament is likely to mislead your readers unless some account is taken of the context in which the Soviet Foreign Com- missar's words were spoken. The official Soviet text of the proceedings in Moscow reveals that the reference appeared in a passage devoted to the Soviet Government's plans for peaceful reconstruction. Mr. Molotov's actual words were: "The enemy interrupted our peaceful creative endeavour, but we shall make up properly for all the lost time and see to it that our country shall flourish. We shall, have atomic energy and many other things, too. Let us then tackle these tasks with all our inexhaustible Bolshevik energy, with all the boundless energy of the Soviet people. Let us work as Comrade Stalin teaches us to! " It was only after this passage that Mr. Molotov turned to the tasks of foreign policy, and it is significant that his first words on this subject consisted of a restatement of the Soviet Union's desire to promote peace and collaboration with other countries.
Unless a wholly unexpected change has occurred in Russia since I left it recently, the applause that greeted Mr. Molotov's words were in affirmation of his statement that the Soviet Government regarded atomic energy as a power to be harnessed for the reconstruction of the Soviet Union, not as means of self-defence or aggression. The suggestion that the Soviet Foreign Commissar threw out this remark in a challenging spirit, which was so heavily underlined in some sections of the British press and in the B.B.C. reports can no longer be taken seriously now that copies of the full text of the speech are available.—Yours, etc.,
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