Evening star., 1949-10-29
NO Until Doomsduy?

Nothing could be less surprising than
the report just submitted by China, France,
Britain, Canada and the United States
on the secret discussions they have recently
held with the Soviet Union in an effort
to arrive at some basis of agreement for
international atomic control To put the
matter in few words, the Russians still
say NO" and the indications are that
they intend to keep on saying it until
doomsday.
There is no real news in this. It con-
stitutes merely another confirmation of
the rigid obstructionist policy that the
krenalin has been following for more than
three years past, ever since the American
drafted control plan was first submitted
to the United Nations Atomic Energy
Commission. Last July, after having ex-
hausted all its powers of persuasion on
the hard rock of Soviet nay-saying, the
commission suspended its deliberations.
Thereupon, in keeping with the General
Assembly's wishes, the commissions orig
tnal sponSors-Canada and the Security
Councils Big Five-undertook to break the
deadlock by means of direct negotiations
among themselves.
The negotiations, however, have turned
out just as expected-namely, with the
Russians standing exactly where they have
always stood. They will have nothing to
do with the plan already approved by
every member of the United Nations
except themselves and their little bloc
of satellites. They do not want powerful
international authority owning, operating
~{I {I,op all
atomic plants and activities throughout
the globe. Nor do they want thorough
going, vetoless inspection system, backed
up by effective punitive machinery, to
guard against violations and evasions.
Instead, they want to be their own bosses
in the nuclear-fssion field. They want
policing of sort that could not really
police. They want, in short, little more
than treaty outlawing Aweapons and
obliging us to destroy our stockpile, but
offering no acceptable guarantee against
the danger that they themselves, well
hidden behind the Iron Curtain, would
arm to the teeth with the atom
In other words, as pointed out in the
report on the secret discussions, China,
France, Britain, Canada and the United
States are ready to put world security
above the prerogatives of their separate
national sovereignties, and they are
therefore willing to- surrender some
measure of their independence in ex-
change for effective control But the
u. s. S. R., by way of contrast, puts it's
own sovereignty first above everything,
and it will not give up any of it. Indeed,
the Russians are so anxious to remain
aloof and unco-operative that they refuse
to offer even an inkling of information
about their recent atomic explosion"
With all this in mind, it is difficult to
derive much encouragement from the
fact that the six nations are going to
resume their negotiations next month.
OF course, continuing talks on the subject
are better than no talks at all, but 1t
would be wishful in the extreme to expect
an early policy change from the Russians
Wholly apart from fearing that they would
always be outvoted by the majority in a
control authority, they are afraid to open
up their country in the way that would be
required by such an authority. After all,
besides having things to hide, they do not
want the agents and ideas of the free
world to circulate among the repressed
Soviet masses.
so 1t is practicable that the Russians
will continue to say mo" for long time