JOHN STRACHEY'S PAMPHLET Scrap All the H-Bombs is much more
sensible than most of the stuff which has appeared on the Left recently; but its chief proposal—that Britain should on her own and without waiting for an international agree- ment suspend her own H-bomb tests 'in the hope that this would encourage Russia and America to do the same'—is gormless. It is really time we woke up to the fact that nothing we do or do not do in this context makes the slightest difference to Russian policy. No doubt if Mr. Macmillan had happened to decide. that Britain should go it alone in this matter, Khrushchev would have made what propaganda use he could of the fact. He would probably have waited until the Russian series of tests was finished, and then praised us fulsomely while announcing the Russian decision to join us in discontinuing tests. But he would have done so solely to embarrass the Americans. Whether Britain continues or discontinues tests is really quite unimportant to the Russians (and indeed to anyone else except ourselves); all that concerns them is to exploit differences of opinion on tests here, in the hope of causing dissension among the Western Powers.
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