Arguments for Testing John Maddox CND Lieut. D. R. A.
Torvell, RN
What's to be Done with Our Bomb?
G. F. Elliott and F. A. E. Pirani The Uncertain Smile of Australia Craig McGregor The Alternative Vote Christopher Hollis Liberals and the Future Lord Boothby New Men in the Town Hall R. Tierra11-Clarke The Canadian Election Donald J. Routley Mexico : 1962 J. M. Cohen Welcome to Britain Mrs. Courtenay Latimer Anti-American Attitudes Constantine FitzGibbon Absolute Truth J. G. Hassell and K. D. Belden Prayers for Animals Victor Gollancz
ARGUMENTS FOR TESTING
SIR,—There is nothing wrong vith Mr. Toynbee's doctrine that a man's vocabulary is a guide to his state of mind, but he does himself as well as me a disservice by admitting only such a narrow spec- trum of states of mind as potential progenitors of vocabulary. For an ample display of anguish, pity and horror is not the only hallmark of decency. He suffers by being deprived of an intelligent under- standing of what military planners are about. The shades of anthropomorphism in his phrase 'support the Bomb' are less alarthing than his implicit belief that all bombs are equally to be deplored.
In fact there are bombs and bombs. To those Who accept that either defence or properly controlled disarmament is an unavoidable part of international relations, the discovery of the least risky means of defence is an important task, and one as much de- serving of dispassionate appeal as any other public issue.
The assertion that objective discussion of questions like these is in itself an assault on humanity is by now painfully familiar. Look at what Galileo, Darwin and Freud had to put up with! But in sug- gesting that, for the discussion of military affairs, feeling is a more accurate guide than reason, the nuclear disarmers disavow that part of our intel- lectual culture which holds that feeling and reason are complementary, and not substitutes for each other. May Day apart, in the long run this may be their most harmful contribution to recent history.
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