Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-12-31
Atomic Revelations
Geored to Confidence
Observer Sees Public Opinion
Holding Certain Veto Power
By David Laurence

BY David Laurence
After reading and re-reading the for
NAL and diplomatic language OF the Mos
COW communique, it is no reflection on
the participants to say that, with respect
to the giving up of the atomic bomb Sc
cret. nothing of substance has been
yielded by the United States or Great
Britain.
All that has been accomplished
and, in sense, it is practical achieve
ment-is the establishment by the
United Nations of ways and means OF
discussing what, If anything, shall be
done with atomic energy both with
respect to destructive and constructive
uses.
The United States retains veto
power. If the agreements drawn up
eventually do not give assurance of pro-
lection, they need not be ratified by the
President or Congress. Public opinion
in America, which does not want to
hand over to any government which
cannot be trusted to keep the peace
the means of destroying American cities
by sudden attack, will in the last analy-
sis have to be persuaded that our safety
is assured or that means of defense
is available in the event that the agree
ment is evaded or violated.
Step by Confident Step.
The key to all the Understanding
phrases and circumlocution of the Mos
cow communicate is, after all, to be
found in a single paragraph which was
previously contained, too, in President
Truman's message to Congress. That
paragraph-the second from last In the
Moscow agreement-says:
1.-THE work of the commission should
proceed by separate stages, the success
full completion of each of which will
| develop the necessary confidence OF the
world before the next stage is under
| taken"
| This is but another way of saying
| that America wants to share with the
| rest of the world the constructive uses
| of atomic energy but wants to make
sure that any secrets which could lead
! to the manufacture of atomic bombs
by other nations will not be handed
over If it is apparent to public opinion
| in the United States that the neces-
sary amount of confidence on our part
| in the motives and purposes of other
nations has not yet been developed.
Inner Secret Last.
| A certain amount of scientific data
Is already known to the experts of other
| countries and doubtless more will be
made available to the commission soon
to be set up under the United Nations,
but it may be taken for granted that
the innermost secret on how bomb
can be made and detonated will be the
last rather than the first thing the
newly created commission learns.
1t is significant that the Moscow
agreement puts the United States, Great
Britain and Russia formally on record
for the first time in the following all
important words:
The commission shall make specific
proposals for the elimination
from national ornaments offs atomic
weapons and of all other major weap-
ons adaptable to mass destruction"
Refreshing Reputation.
Here for the first time the three great
powers join in condemning any future
use not only of atomic bombs but block
busters and rocket bombs and any
other of the bombs which the Raj and
the United States Army Air Forces used
to kill xoncombatants during the re-
cent war.
The term mass destruction" would
seem here to penetrate the customary
camouflage about military installa-
tons" which has cloaked in legitimacy
some of the most terrible crimes against
noncombatants the world has ever wit
messed. 1t is refreshing to see the major
powers making this indirect repudia-
ton of what they did in the guise of
military necessity in war which so
many military experts now avow could
have been won within the rules of civil
lied warfare that have always pro-
tected noncombatant men, women and
children when they are helpless to pro-
tect themselves.
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