NEWS OF THE WEEK
Q0 EIIRESIDR,14.-4,k TRUMAN st f viountries which know
Uni States, Britain States, as the re Lure. add made avai last Tuesday that there are three whole secret of the atomic bomb, the Canada ; but that only one, the United ces and industrial equipment for its manufac- at the engineering " know how " would not be to Allied or other countries, and that he confidently expected that Britain and Canada would agree with this decision. Yet General Marshall, United States Chief of Staff, in a recent report states that Germany was far advanced in the development of the atomic bomb in 1944 ; and Dr. Langmuir, appearing as an expert before the Senate Committee, said that Russia was known to be planning a programme of scientific development, and in ten or twenty years would have the secret of atomic production. Already, it must be noted, America is committed to a programme of intensive scientific development and the manufacture of " terrifying " new weapons. So much was made clear in General Marshall's report, in which he described a number of these new instruments of attack which are already in production or under development. The situation at this moment seems to be that America is committed to 'a pro- gramme of energetic new production, plus a policy of secrecy, without disguising the fact that other countries can and will pursue the same course. Opinion in this country as in America is divided as to the wisest plan. Sir Arthur Salter would have the secret kept for the present ; Dr. A. V. Hill pleads for disclosure. But the former would lodge the plans with the Security Council if every member will grant powers of effective inspection. The best arrangement might be for the bombs, if manufactured at all, to be made in America and held at the disposal of the Security Council, with a universal pledge that they will never be used by any single nation. In any case there should be consultation at the earliest possible moment before major Powers have separately committed themselves. Drift in respect of co-opera- tion means swift advance along the road of competition.
