SIR,—Surely Mr. McKee in his striking letter on weapons of
war (Spectator, December 3), has failed to take into account the genuinely new factor introduced by nuclear weapons their secondary effects: that is, the prolonged radioactivity of bombed areas; the travelling clouds of radioactive dust; the cumulative poisoning of air, soil, water and Crops (and probably fish); the long-term genetic effects, and even the radioactive-waste-products problem of a large-scale naclear armaments industry. This last could apply equally to extensive 'peacetime uses of atomic energy --a sinister fact too seldom mentioned.
In more senses than that so competently expounded by Mr. McKee. the atom bomb will not pay.' (Nor, probably, will the peace. time development of nuclear energy.)—Yours faithfully,
D. E. DAVY
85 Abingdon Villas, W.8
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